Category Archives: Electric Taxis

Nissan LEAF taxis arrive in Blackpool

March 25, 2015Electric Cars, Electric Taxis, Leaf, News, Reviews and Comment, NissanTrevor Larkum

A new fleet of 100% electric Nissan LEAF taxis has gone into service in Blackpool 130 years after the tourist resort introduced one of the world’s first electric tramways.

The 12-strong fleet of LEAFs has been introduced by local firm Premier Cabs and will operate in and around Blackpool and neighbouring Lytham St Annes on a 24-7 basis.

The company, which ordered the cars through leading North West Nissan dealer Chorley Group, expects to replace more of its 170-strong fleet with the British-built models and its sister vehicle, the e-NV200 Combi in the months ahead.

Each vehicle will cover up to 55,000 miles a year in the course of covering around 200 fares per week. They will be supported by a dedicated network of five rapid chargers that can charge the vehicles from zero to 80 percent in as little as half an hour.

The move will double the existing charging network in the Blackpool area. However, it is not clear whether these points will be available to the public.

Premier Cabs expect the LEAF to drastically reduce fuel costs

With running costs from two pence per mile, the LEAFs will allow Premier Cabs to drastically reduce its biggest single expense, fuel. And these savings will be passed on to the drivers, who will take home between £80-£120 per week extra by driving a LEAF. This, in turn, will allow the company to tackle one of its biggest challenges: driver recruitment.

Managing Director, John Cutler, said:

“We’ve done the maths and we know the LEAFs will save the business money but that wasn’t the main factor in our decision. We wanted to do something special for our customers and for the town and this really fits the bill.

“This gives Blackpool a fleet of clean, green and very comfortable taxis that passengers will love and the town can be proud of.”

The move to electric taxis has already been made by a few forward thinking companies. Last May, St Austell-based C&C Taxis clocked up 150,000 miles and more than 37,000 individual fares in its fleet of electric Nissan LEAF taxis.

In December, it also took delivery of one of the first all-electric Nissan e-NV200 Combi models to arrive in the UK.

Source: Newspress

Taxi boss in 700-mile round trip to pick up electric car

February 26, 2015e-NV200, Electric Taxis, Electric Vans, News, Reviews and Comment, NissanTrevor Larkum

A Cornish cab driver has hailed a Burnley firm – after becoming one of the first people in the UK to take delivery of a new Nissan electric taxi.

Mark Richards clocked up more than 700 miles when he made the round trip from St Austell in Cornwall to the Chorley Group’s Nissan dealership in Westgate, Burnley.

But the taxi boss didn’t need to worry about his meter racking up a bill on the return journey because his all-electric new motor costs just 2p a mile to run.

The Chorley Group are one of the first Nissan dealers in the country to sell the new e-NV200 taxi.

Mark Richards and Andy Lloyd (Image: Burnley Express)

Mark, who works for C&C Taxis in St Austell, said:

“We’ve been using Nissan Leafs for a while now.

“The e-NV200 will have paid for itself in savings within a few years and it is much better for the environment than the big carriers we use at the minute.”

Andy Lloyd, general manager of the Chorley Group’s Burnley dealership, said the company had invested a lot of money in electric vehicle technology over the last 18 months and that demand was constantly growing.

Source: Burnley Express

Taxi company hails new Nissan e-NV200

January 8, 2015e-NV200, Electric Taxis, Electric Vans, News, Reviews and Comment, NissanTrevor Larkum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sMsAzT1G50

A PIONEERING Cornwall taxi company has taken delivery of one of the first all-electric Nissan e-NV200 Combi models to arrive in the UK.

St Austell-based C&C Taxis added the award-winning van to its six-strong fleet of 100% electric Nissan LEAFs earlier this month.

The five-seater Combi – Next Green Car’s LCV of the Year – has since clocked up more than 1,000 miles across the Duchy.

Already C&C’s fleet manager, Mark Richards, is sure the company’s onto another winner, calculating that, just like each LEAF on the fleet, the e-NV200 Combi will save £10,000 in fuel bills per year.

And the additional versatility and practicality the e-NV200 Combi – added to the LEAF’s winning formula of low cost, zero emissions motoring – has convinced him to commit to a long-term strategy of phasing out the company’s remaining diesel vehicles and replacing them all with EVs.

Mark said: “We’ve had such great success with our LEAFs we decided we were going to buy an e-NV200 the minute we learnt it was going to be launched.

“Now we have one, we’re absolutely delighted with it. It does everything the LEAF does but is much bigger and offers more space.”

“We’ll definitely be ordering more.”

Priced from £17,855 – incorporating £5,000 Government Plug-in Car Grant (PICG) – the e-NV200 Combi is capable of covering 106 miles on a single charge and can be charged from zero to 80% full in as little as 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, running costs are as low as two pence per mile and users also benefit from low maintenance costs that make for unrivalled total cost of ownership – £1,200 lower than a conventional diesel van over four years.

Source: Nissan Insider

A Trip by Tesla Taxi in Norway

November 13, 2014Blog, Electric Cars, Electric Taxis, Model S, TeslaJason

On a business trip last month (21st October) I arrived with a colleague at Haugesund, a small airport on the windswept west coast of Norway.

We were quickly out and walked over to the taxi rank and straight into a Tesla. I was delighted as I am very interested in electric cars, and the Tesla is definitely the flagship EV in my mind.

Tesla Model S Taxi: 17" Touchscreen — Tesla Model S Taxi: 17″ Touchscreen

I made sure I got the front seat. The car is a delight. Comfortable, quiet and smooth. The dashboard contains an absolutely enormous LCD screen with a myriad of context relevant data.

We got talking with the driver. He had received the car in March and, so far as he knew, he was the only Tesla operating as a taxi driver in that region. He said on most days he worked the full day on one charge. Only if he had some exceptional journeys might he need to recharge.

Tesla’s Model S gets new taxi role in Amsterdam

October 28, 2014Electric Cars, Electric Taxis, Model S, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaTrevor Larkum

At around £50,000, a Tesla Model S is a desireable car, but hardly the sort of vehicle to bring electric driving to the masses.

As a result there are probably hundreds if not thousands of wannabe Telsa owners in the country.

But one company is giving commuters to get a chance to experience the Model S by running it as a taxi.

The Netherland’s Taxi Electric firm offers the Model S as part of its Amsterdam fleet of electric vehicles, which until now has consisted just of Nissan LEAF cars.

One of Europe’s leading markets for electric vehicles, the Model S will be right at home in Amsterdam with its new Nissan brothers; even if it is rather an unusual mini-cab.

Hiring the Model S should be easy as Taxi Electric has also just signed a deal with Cabforce – a European-wide advanced-booking service for taxis and minibuses, which helps makes it easy to book and pay for cabs while abroad.

As part of an environmentally-friendly initiative, all of the Cabforce / Taxi Electric green transport options are now flagged up under the new Cabforce Green branding.

Tommi Holmgren, co-founder of Cabforce, says:

“Our transport solutions might be green, but we’re certainly not ‘green’! We’ve got a lot of experience in this industry and we know what business travellers want – efficient, professional service with a touch of class to ensure their pre-booked journeys are always hassle free”.