Over 550 Nissan Electric Taxis In Europe
Originally published on EV Obsession.
Thanks to Uber in the US, I know of one emission-free driver who makes his fares and saves $500+ a month avoiding gas and oil changes thanks to his Nissan LEAF. Still, in the US, we may have some catching up to do with Europe, where more than 550 Nissan electric taxis glide quietly on European roads. A recent press release, “Hailing Its Taxis: Nissan Exceeds All-Important 500 Electric Taxi Milestone,” shares that, as with my Uber friend, Nissan is the European choice for such driving.
Nissan is Europe’s best-selling manufacturer of 100% electric taxis. “During 2015, more than 100 electric vehicles were delivered to taxi companies across Europe,” Nissan notes.
Nissan electric vehicles — the Nissan LEAF and e-NV200, a passenger and light commercial vehicle, are catching on progressively among European taxi businesses. The Netherlands and the UK lead Nissan’s e-taxi league table.
Top 5 e-taxi countries in Europe (registrations):
|
|
Country |
Nissan LEAF |
Nissan e-NV200 |
Total number of Nissan e-taxis |
|
1. |
Netherlands |
27 |
167 |
194 |
|
2. |
UK |
124 |
10 |
134 |
|
3. |
Estonia |
74 |
0 |
74 |
|
4. |
Hungary |
68 |
0 |
68 |
|
5. |
Germany |
24 |
6 |
30 |
As the Nissan press release points out, taxi drivers are demanding users with the highest mileage. Nissan EVs have proven reliability as well as massive fuel and maintenance savings. “In Estonia, it has been reported that a Nissan LEAF owned by the taxi company, Elektritakso, has clocked up over 218,000 kilometres on its original battery pack, showcasing the high quality and reliability of Nissan’s electric vehicle range.”
The increase of EVs in the electric taxi market is not going to slow. Nissan’s popularity has started to take hold in Eastern Europe as well.
“Green Lite Taxi Kft., based in Budapest, has purchased 65 Nissan LEAFs in a bid to become Hungary’s largest zero-emission fleet. To power its pioneering franchise, CEO Örs Lévay has installed seven quick chargers within the city.”
Clean air, quiet traffic, and thanks to the launch of the new 30 kWh Nissan LEAF, more range. Drivers can travel 25% further making it an even more practical choice for taxi companies.
Related Stories:
“Wizzy” The Nissan LEAF Taxi Surpasses 100,000 Miles
The Launch Of Canada’s First All-Electric Taxi Service — Nissan & Taxelco
Amsterdam’s Taxi Electric Will Be 1st Private Taxi Company To Use Nissan’s New e-NV200
Nissan Designs NV200 Taxi Just For London
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Well once a lot or all the high mileage drivers switch to EV`s, that will make a big dent into fuel use.
Because if the average person dives say 30 miles a day, fills up the tank once a week or every two as compared to say a taxi driver who buys a tank full a day, so the more high mileage drivers switch the better for our planet.
Indeed. Think it’s been smart of Nissan and BYD to target taxis.
I wish London Taxis were electric, they spit out god awful clouds of soot, it’s foul being anywhere near one. And with so many taxi ranks, the city has no excuse not to put in lots of charging stations. Perhaps they could make use of induction charging.
Hybrid buses and trucks are a good way to cut pollution in the mean time.
If the Bolt is used for commuting, oil consumption will go down, this is good.
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I wonder if Tesla expects electric taxis to be recharged at “home”.
I doubt Nissan has free charging and so their EVs can be used as taxis.
I’d like to see Tesla address the frequency of use issue for their Superchargers.
Is the buy-in price high enough to allow taxis and delivery vehicles to charge once or more per day? Does there need to be a limit (say 50 uses per year) and a second fee for higher use?
You know that they’ll sell a lot of Mod3s for taxis if rapid charging is available and low priced or ‘free’.
There should be some automatic limitation and extra cost when using a Tesla for commercial use like taxis and deliveries. Otherwise it’s one of those missuses that could break the whole supercharger model.
As long as very high users limited their charger use to low demand time (middle of the morning/afternoon and later at night) then there wouldn’t be a need for more SC bays. The issue would be only how much electricity would be used.
I’ve been guesstimating that no more than five out of one hundred Teslas would be taking a >200 mile drive on any given day. A single SC bay could serve those five cars for a midday (lunchtime) charge between 11 AM and 1:30 PM. Fewer than five would be grabbing a second late afternoon charge.
If the buyin for using the SC system is $2,000 per car that means that 100 cars would create a $200,000 fund to install a single charging bay. I’ve read $18k per bay, leaving >$180,000 for installing solar to produce the electricity used and system maintenance.
$100k would buy a nice big hunk of a solar farm.
I’d love to hear Tesla’s thinking on all this. You know they gamed this sort of stuff out well before they installed the first SC. It may be that the luxury level cars will get unlimited use but the Mod3 and future more affordable models will have some sort of use limits.
A ~80 times a year limit would allow someone with no place to park to drive an EV. (13,000 annual miles / 170 miles per SC = 76 uses.)
More than 80 times per year might mean an extra buyin with the money used to buy a bit more of the solar farm. Or wind farm.
It could be a hell of a deal for a taxi driver.
The simpler solution long term I think is to simply charge users to ‘fill up’ at a slightly inflated price point to provide profit to pay for the system. I would readily pay for it (heck i already do obviously with gas) and I believe most people would pay for it as well. The extra benefit of free charging (not a huge incentive) is only needed now because people don’t yet know how great EV’s are.
I only need the chargers to be readily accessible. I am a reasonable person, I would never expect them to be free…
Yeah I think that is the best solution too. Once the Mod 3 comes out I expect there to be a fee for the super charger or there will be an annual limit with a fee afterwards. It’ll probably stay free for the S and X but not the 3.
Charging isn’t free. You’re paying up front for it. The benefit for paying up front is that you’re financing the solar you’ll use to charge when you use a SC.
I agree… I’d actually rather they charge for it. Preferably at cost (as a service to their customers) so that there’s no incentive to fill up there over filling up at home, or even a very small premium (1-2 c/kwh) to disincentives people who don’t need it for long travels, but not so much as most of the other chargers I’ve seen…
It would keep the system from being abused and keep it open and available for us prospective future owners… =-)
There is also the issue of filling air in the tyres. Especially in Norway!
Do Tesla drivers there go to petrol stations to fill up tyres and not buy anything from the petrol stations?
Well some may have a small pump at home. One of my neighbors has a tire (air) pump for his regular car. Going to the gas station to fill my tires the other day was the first time I was at one in a while. I sure do not miss them. It cost me a dollar to inflate.
What did you spend the $1 on?
I had to put a dollar worth of quarters in the air pump to turn it on. Definitely investing in a small air pump to use at home is a good idea. Most gas stations — not all — in Florida charge 1$ to turn on the air for tires. I imagine I could just go to the Nissan Dealership and have them inflate the tires for free. In fact, I am sure I can do that.
wow! $1 to use the air pump!
I thought they would be free in most nations.
What happened in Barcelona, which IIRC announced a move towards the minivan EV taxis? All in all, a disappointing pace of change.
I Googled “electric taxis barcelona” and found this link: http://www.carscoops.com/2014/10/nissan-starts-delivering-electric-taxis.html
Here are some photos: https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+taxis+barcelona&newwindow=1&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDk-vMmLbJAhUC4SYKHXM2D8EQ7AkINw&biw=1366&bih=643
So how many taxi riders are getting a “test drive” with an experienced EV driver, who can tell ’em all about their real-life experience with an EV? How many such rides, per day?
Nissan could put stickers displaying their EV websites in these cabs. Or co-sponsor such websites with the local cab companies.
It takes too long for recharging a Leaf for this to really work unless your taxi stand had a Chademo charger, and even then you would lose a lot of fares.
My Uber driver friend does well with his LEAF. He simply charges up in between. Gets a call and unplugs. He has been at it about a year. Does fine.