BYD Supplies Twenty E6 Electric Sedans For London’s First Zero-Emissions Electric Chauffeur Fleet

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Originally published on EV Obsession.

London’s first zero-emissions chauffeur service, Thriev, has signed an agreement with the noted EV manufacturer BYD Auto for the procurement of twenty BYD e6 electric sedans. The new fleet from BYD is currently set to officially enter service on Feb 3rd, 2014 — marking it the opening of the first such zero-emissions taxi or chauffeur service in the country.

The new deal, and the launch of the Thriev chauffeur-service in general, represents one of the first steps towards the fulfillment of the aggressive goal put forward by the Mayor of London last month — by the year 2018, all new taxis in London will be required to be zero-emissions in order to receive an operating license. As part of the new deal, BYD will also be equipping Thriev’s Edgware Road facility located in west London with BYD’s purpose-designed charging equipment — allowing for rapid charging of the e6.

Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

A bit of background on Thriev — the company is a chauffeured car-service offering low-cost, zero-emission rides throughout the London area. The service will utilize an “electric car program complete with intelligent AC power interfaces, EVs and state-of-the-art smart car/charger scheduling systems.”

Business Wire provides more:

Initially, the e6 fleet is being supplied on a lease arrangement, although both BYD and Thriev expect this to be the beginning of a long-term relationship fulfilling a joint BYD and Thriev vision for a ‘green city solution’ – the transitioning of key public and personal transport vehicles from petrol and diesel power to pure electric. In December 2013, two fully-electric, full-size 12-meter BYD buses operated by Go-Ahead Group, entered service on two central Transport-for-London routes – part of a Europe-wide initiative to introduce emissions-free buses to major city centre operations. Both the e6 car and eBus from BYD share the same proven and reliable Battery-electric technology. They use BYD’s internally developed Iron-Phosphate (or “FE”) batteries, proven in over 100 million miles of taxi and 14 million miles of bus passenger transport in China as well as many parts of the world.

With regard to the new agreement, BYD Europe’s Managing Director Isbrand Ho, stated: “We have been looking at various options to bring our e6 and its proven emissions-free technology to London. We are convinced that in Thriev we have found the right partner to do this – we share many of the same objectives of providing safe, reliable and efficient green transport in cities.”


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre