Taxi Driver Online

Not sure if the firm has got the cart before the horse here (or the electric vehicle before the rapid charger ), or if bad communications, or wot


Radio Taxi Southampton urges Southampton City Council to install rapid charge points

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/176913 ... ge-points/


Image: Daily Echo

A TAXI firm claims to have bought the first all-electric taxi in Southampton but said it cannot use it due to the lack of rapid chargers in the city.

Clive Johnson, honorary chairman of Radio Taxi Southampton, said the firm spent about £30,000 in April to buy an electric Nissan Leaf in a bid to fight air pollution.

He said the company informed Southampton City Council (SCC) of the new vehicle and assumed that all the chargers in the city were rapid, meaning that the car could be charged in about 40 minutes.

But the firm has been forced to use the taxi only in the evenings as Mr Johnson said that with the existing chargers it takes between seven to ten hours to charge the car and it is not viable.

Civic chiefs said there are already a number of incentives to encourage residents and businesses to use electric cars and said they have recently met with taxi bosses in the city to listen to their requirements and support them.


Image: Daily Echo

But Mr Johnson, is now calling on the authority to install rapid chargers across the city as soon as possible.

He said: “You can’t run a taxi service with a car that is not on the road for a certain amount of time. We are using it part-time at the moment because otherwise it is not viable. I assumed that the council would have realised that rapid chargers were the only viable option for electric taxis.”

He said the authority has now told taxi bosses that a rapid charger will be in place by the end of July and a few more will be installed by the end of the year.

When asked when and where the new rapid chargers will be in place, councillor Steve Leggett, cabinet member for green city and environment at SCC, said: “The council is taking steps to install rapid charge points to service the taxi trade specifically to add to the package of incentives we have already made available. These installation plans were outlined to the trade when we met with them recently."

The city council said charge points in the city are capable of fast charging, which can take up to five hours depending on the users requirements. The charges are in car parks and are free for users.

Ah, well that explains it - the council thinks 'fast charging' is five hours

But presumably 'fast' isn't quite the same as 'rapid'

Home chargers are 3.7KW or 7KW chargers = slow
Most office place or shopping centre chargers are 22KW = fast
The three phase chargers are 50KW (some Tesla chargers are 150KW)

I’m led to believe that the fast chargers are around £1,000 to install as where the rapid chargers are around £50,000 because of their three phase requirements.

I think any right minded person would have looked into the local EV charging point availablity situation before rushing out and buying a very expensive EV car.

Doh!

That would have been a good

I hope they won't install the chargers on the ranks, because that still wouldn't help that car. That's a PHV; Soton HCs are all white.

That's just fine and dandy as long as no one else is using them.

I'm a massive fan of electric cars, but a mate of mine nearly went mad trying to charge up his cab.

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IDFIMH

Is there anyone with more than one brain cell who thinks that's fast?

What is needed are super fast chargers that can do 80% in about 30 minutes.

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IDFIMH

In the future cabs on ranks will be charged up via wifi in the road.

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IDFIMH

In the present, you can “charge up” a taxi to 100% capacity in five minutes.....

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Former taxi driver