Taxi Driver Online

New funding allows Nottingham to charge ahead with taxi ambitions


Nottingham’s ambitions to promote zero-emission taxis in the city have been given a £936,000 funding boost.

The Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has announced that Nottingham was successful in its bid for £702,064 – topped up to £936,090 through separate Government transport funds for Nottingham – to help convert the local taxi fleet to electric vehicles.

The money will be spent on installing 32 connection points at eight locations in and around the city dedicated for private hire taxis and hackney cabs to charge up. They could be installed as soon as summer this year.

Nottingham’s was one of ten bids which received funding announced by the Government at a new

London Taxi Company Facility in Coventry this morning (March 22) where new purpose-built electric taxis will be manufactured. Also announced was a new Plug-In Taxi Grant which will allow vehicle dealers to claim a grant of between £3,000 and £7,500 – making the vehicles cheaper for drivers.

The new funding supports the council’s challenging aims outlined in its new Taxi Strategy, which recognises the need to modernise the taxi fleet and improve the customer offer, not just around comfort and safety, but also around the environmental impact of taxi emissions. One of the key stumbling blocks to encouraging drivers to invest in electric vehicles is charging infrastructure, and this funding will remove that obstacle. It’s hoped that private hire operators already using electric vehicles will see this as an opportunity to increase their electric fleet and encourage hackney drivers to look into upgrading to electric vehicles, helped by the new grant.

The funding will support the council’s Go Ultra Low Nottingham Programme, which aims to see 8,000 low-emission vehicles on the city’s roads, along with proposals for a Clean Air Zone to be introduced by 2020 and schemes such as the Eco Expressway which will feature a dedicated low-emission vehicle lane.

Portfolio Holder for Energy and Sustainability, Councillor Alan Clark, said: “On many occasions, the first experience that visitors to the city have is seeing and riding in a taxi. Having a modern, zero emission taxi fleet not only provides an important first impression but is crucial to help improve the city’s air quality and people’s health, which is a key priority. This money will fund the installation of charging points that will support the increasing uptake of low emission taxis.

“Nottingham is leading the way on low emission transport transformation. This investment is in addition to our two new tram routes, the introduction of one of the largest electric bus fleets in the UK, our Eco Expressway to provide priority for green vehicles and our success in becoming one of the exemplar cities in the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) Go Ultra Low City Scheme.”

source: http://www.mynottinghamnews.com/new-fun ... ambitions/

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

I wonder how many brown envelopes passed hands?

I wonder how much more expensive the TX5 will be compared to the Tx4 before the government incentive

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

the new TX will cost almost 60K I understand - and there's 2 lease agreements, one for the cab and another for the battery

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

I wonder how many Joe Public will jump on these charging points?

taxis will never be able to get near them

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

That is a lot of cash.

_________________
IDFIMH

32 charging points.
An electric vehicle takes 8 hours to fully charge, Nissan Leafs can get a quick boost for about 30 miles range in 1/2 an hour (I think?).

So taxi drivers are going to put their flat vehicles on charge, get a taxi home and then get another taxi back 8 hours later when they're fully charged ?

Each charging point has the potential to fully charge only 3 vehicles a day (8 hours each) so altogether just 96 vehicles could be charged per day for the entire city. But people don't want to charge at equally spaced intervals throughout the day, they'll all want to charge at the same time when shifts finish. No good if one driver finishes days and the night driver wants to start.

Anyone who buys an electric vehicle will be charging it at home or whilst they're at work in an office, no-one buys electric and relies solely on public charging points unless they're very close to where they live.

No good for taxi drivers unless it's one driver and they charge at home.
The handfull of cabbies who've got a Leaf here spend more time at the charging point than they do working, they'll work an hour and then go for a quick 'boost' and then work another hour. They've plenty of range left but they don't know if they'll be able to get on a charging point so keep them topped up throughout the day !

Exactly the above.

How are 20,000 London black cabs going to be charged up?

_________________
IDFIMH

I think there's method in their madness, most taxis will be off the road because of charging issues, people will then use buses and the tube.

How much is it in money to charge it up. How much to the mile....

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Free to charge up.

Nothing is free

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

Only your services.

Having the charge points on the ranks seems like a good move.

But what happens when cabs move down the rank?

_________________
IDFIMH