Taxi Driver Online

I had a letter printed in the Telegraph warning the council the vehicles where no good to man or beast, due to the distances between jobs, and the need to try and get back to base to recharge and that they would spend about an hour a day towing them back in

The Community Charge (poll tax) was replaced by Council Tax in 1993

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Shows how long its been since he paid it

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

whats the (IC) mpg of a Prius and whats it electric range, how much is a battery pack?

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Ok..Council Tax...It's still our money they are wasting.

Well I did another 180 miles today, i cant find a leccy car that coulda kept up with me and cost what my car cost me to buy...

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I agree and see this a lot. EV drivers don't like unused charge points as well, because it gives a negative image for the vehicles generally. In reality all commuters travelling upto 25 miles to work will charge from home and upto 50 miles will charge at work as well. Unfortunately what happens is that a proper analysis based on practical and informed data of the need and likely usage is not performed. For example, supermarkets are installing charge points but in reality they unlikely to used because it is easier and cheaper to charge at home.

The £75k sounds exceptionally high - the average cost for an installed rapid charger is around £25k installed. Strange as a commercial business would do a lot of analysis before engaging in that level of expense. Although, I have managed to affect a couple of plans it is really difficult to engage with the decision makers on these things.

However, there is good work being done such as Nissan dealers and Ecotricity who are expecting to have a rapid charger in every motorway service station by the end of 2014. (see map of rapid chargers). This is really good news for the consumer as this is where they are required and also builds the public's confidence in the technology. I am beginning to meet other EV drivers at these locations and certainly Fleet services is installing an additional unit presumably because of demand.


Ok - assuming your scenario fits the one for an electric option which it might be at the limit of, how about we do a virtual but representative (as far as possible) comparison?
All it would require is some representative figures, you may have those already or it would be easy to capture the data, and I will do a representative comparison of whole life cost.

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Independent electric vehicle consultant.
Helping private hire drivers save around £5,000/year in fuel bills compared to a good diesel.
Walking the talk since 1997.
Currently owns a 2011 Nissan Leaf that has done over 50,000 miles.

What happens when you turn up and it's already in use, with a queue of another three vehicles behind waiting to use it ? Or someones plugged in and buggered off for an overnight stay in the Travelodge ?
Eventually we'd need hundreds of these charging points at every service station.

The same at workplaces, the number of charge points would have to be equal to or greater than the number of people wanting to re-charge at work, or extension cables snaking across carparks from peoples desks ! Do you think workers are going to be thoughtful enough to leave their desks to move their car from a chargepoint so someone else can get a look in, what about those who work away from the office in a company car but leave their own on charge ? What happens at the end of the day when you return to your car only to find someones unplugged it (either to charge their own or just maliciously) and you don't have enough juice to get home ?

How many businesses are going to want to give away free electric to their workers anyway ?

I can still work through a localised power cut..can an EV user do that?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

but theres no comparison and no leccy vehicle to match mine in terms of size

car cost £4000 a year ago, has done 30,000 miles at 40mpg, i can get 4 adult passengers and a load of shopping in the boot

car now worth £3000 at least

£4500 worth of fuel

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

We havent scratched the surface yet


PSA Peugeot Citroën exhibited the "Hybrid Air" engine, an experimental petro-hydraulic hybrid, at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. The engine is the result of a secret development project involving about 100 people. The basic technology is not new, it has been used in heavy vehicles such as garbage trucks or buses which frequently start and stop, but its application to passenger cars is. The vehicle uses nitrogen gas compressed by energy harvested from braking or deceleration to power an hydraulic drive which supplements power from its conventional gasoline engine. The hydraulic and electronic components were supplied by Robert Bosch GmbH. Production versions were scheduled for 2015 or 2016 to sell at about $25,000, £17,000. Mileage was estimated to be about 80 miles per gallon for city driving if installed in a Citroën C3.

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I don't think any electric vehicle available now is suitable to be used as a taxi (for a proper shift), except perhaps the Tesla Model S, but even that would only do 250 on a full charge (more like 200 with passengers, luggage, heater/aircon, lights, radio equipment, wipers etc taken into account) and charge points are few and far between. I would say a large proportion of taxi drivers are not able to charge at home because they can't park their car close enough to their home to practically run a wire to it. They might live on the 20th floor of a tower block.

The advantages of an electric taxi are clear: they are far more efficient, require much less maintenance, and cost less to run. However, it's the battery technology which is not yet advanced enough to power a vehicle that can feasibly be used full-time as a taxi without having 3 tonnes of batteries on board or taking a week to recharge. In the last two years two things have been developed which may aid a solution: a type of solar panel which can simply be sprayed onto the body of a car as if it were paint, and a supercapacitor based on graphene that can hold a similar amount of charge to a lithium-ion battery but lasts 10 times as long and charges up in a fraction of the time, potentially meaning a car could be charged up in 5 minutes. Once these technologies are made commercially viable, and a proper charging infrastructure is in place, an electric cab will be viable. Until then, in my opinion fully electric taxi/PH drivers will be limited to short journeys/shifts.

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Sometimes the most telling information comes from what's not said...

On a day shift with school run plus town i do 175 miles a day, without the school probably 120, so a Tesla would do me and save me £5000+ a year in fuel

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Fair enough, obviously it depends where you work and whether you do airport runs etc. I think the charging infrastructure needs a lot more expansion before people will have faith in it. And the range figures given will likely decrease over the lifespan of the batteries - some taxi drivers from Tokyo who were given Nissan Leafs to use for 2 years reported a 66% decrease in range (i.e to 30 miles) after a year of taxi work. they also stopped using the heater in winter and gave passengers blankets instead in a desperate attempt to squeeze more miles out of the battery.

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Sometimes the most telling information comes from what's not said...