Taxi Driver Online

Eastbourne taxi driver ‘gobsmacked’ at response to buying an electric car



An Eastbourne driver who said he faced issues getting his electric taxi licensed has now been given the all-clear by the council.

Dean O’Hara, from Sovereign Harbour, has been a driver in Eastbourne for more than 10 years and works for Call A Cab.

When Dean’s estate car needed replacing, he invested in a £25,000 fully-electric MG5 EV.

However, Dean said after making this investment he felt Eastbourne isn’t ready for such a green vehicle despite the borough council promoting an agenda for a greener future.

Dean said, “I was gobsmacked. All this talk of switching away from petrol and diesel but the town’s just not ready. It is all talk and not nearly enough action.”

He said he was told his car couldn’t be licensed because it might ‘set a trend’. He said he was told if 20 Eastbourne taxi drivers went out to buy electric cars there wouldn’t be enough places to charge them.

Dean said he finds it hard to believe that many drivers would make a sudden switch due the cost of electric cars at the moment and therefore the availability of charging points would be fine.

He said, “We have a charging point at home. An eight-hour overnight charge gives me a range of up to 260 miles and that’s more than enough for the work I do - I won’t be clogging up the public charging points.”

Dean said his case was taken up by his local councillors in Sovereign ward who were ‘appalled’ at the way he’s been treated in his efforts to put a sustainable taxi on the roads in Eastbourne.

Sovereign conservative councillor Penny di Cara said, “This is so unfair on a hard-working driver. Dean is now losing money every day because of the total incompetence of our Liberal Democrat-run council. They talk a lot about green issues but, as this woeful case clearly shows, they’ve done precious little to put those mealy words into practice.”

She said, “Like many of us, Dean has a family to support and a mortgage to pay. This is grossly unfair on him when he’s gone out of his way to heed the words of the mandarins running our borough and embrace a more sustainable future for taxi cabs in our town.”

Since raising the issue, Dean said the council has been in touch to tell him the car will be licensed and he said he was also issued an apology for the lack of communication and the amount of time taken to get the issue resolved.

_________________
IDFIMH

Civil service at its worst.

_________________
IDFIMH

if the range is as good as he claims, why should the council provide him with a charging point, seems like blaming esso for not having a filling station in my garden

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Don't you know going out and buying an electric car gives you the right to expect everything to be thrown at your feet !

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Why not buy a 2litre Diesel Mondeo Hybrid? Fully electric motors will only take off because people want to believe they work

A good mate of mine bought an electric car for another good mate of mine to drive as a PH.

It ended their friendship.

The trouble driver mate had keeping the vehicle charged was stressing him out so much he considered packing the trade in.

In the end he gave the car back to owner mate after three months, who sold the car back to the dealer at a £1,500 (ish) loss.

I will never buy a 100% electric taxi/PH, never ever never.

_________________
IDFIMH

I take it that you will be retiring before 2035 then.

_________________
Grandad,
old fart with no heart

I've been watching Sussex's change of mind closely over the past few years








I've never really wavered from that kind of view. Thought of fuelling up often stressful enough, but even in normal times that's normally a couple of times a week max, and to a large degree I can pick and choose where and when it happens.

So unless you have a home charger, and are maybe one of those who isn't totally reliant on the trade for their income, 100% electric not something I would recommend.

Of course, and as per Grandad's point, the powers that be will probably force us to comply at some point anyway, whether that's via licensing rules or those for vehicles generally.

And when I say *us*, obviously I mean the trade, since I'm sure some of *us* hope we'll be out of it by that point, one way or the other

Anyway, the rest of this thread looks like one where several contributors didn't actually read the article

The guy never asked the council for more chargers - he said he's got his own, and the car has a decent range.

It was the council who were stonewalling, because they thought that by plating this car they would open the EV floodgates, thus other drivers would be putting pressure on the chargers.


Makes you wonder what the chargers are there for in the first place. Mabye they're for selected councillors and officials

My comment was a sarcastic remark about expecting the council to bite his hand off to plate the car not about chargers thank you !!!

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Paranoid, much? Did I name names?

What's that old saying? Something like, "I'm not paranoid, I just thing everyone's got it in for me."

We have not had any problems with charging our electric car........................yet.

_________________
Grandad,
old fart with no heart

9 times out of 10 such comments are aimed at me as you well know young Trauts !

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

OK, let's just assume I misunderstood your sarcasm

And you weren't just trying to cover your tracks

But some people do have form for being serial skim readers

There will be plenty of hybrids that I could spend my money on.

_________________
IDFIMH