Taxi Driver Online

Birmingham Evening Mail

October 25, 2007, Thursday

Central City News: Green and yellow cabs on their way;

Brum in trial for new environmentally friendly taxi

QUESTION: What's bright yellow, three metres long, makes no noise and runs on hydrogen?

ANSWER: It's the Microcab - a new breed of Birmingham taxi!

The groundbreaking, environmentally friendly taxi cab, developed and made in the West Midlands, is set to arrive on the roads of Birmingham next year as part of a Government trial of energy efficient cars.

The Microcab is the brainchild of Coventry entrepreneur John Jostins, who has invented the vehicle over the past ten years.

John, who previously worked in cinematic special effects and was instrumental in the design of the Star Wars robot R2D2 in the late 1970s, is a senior lecturer at Coventry University.

It was while designing futuristic vehicles for another sci-fi film in the mid-90s that he first came up with the Microcab concept.

In recent years, the vehicle has been prototyped and showcased around the world as a glimpse of future transport.

It can cover 100 miles on a full tank of hydrogen - a typical day's usage for a city centre taxi.

The prototype has been such a success that Whitehall has funded a trial of five vehicles in Birmingham.

And a consortium of West Midlands-based manufacturers has been assembled with a view to producing 1,500 of the vehicles each year by 2012.

Further vehicle designs are planned to add a number of variants to the range while the Microcab is also helping the university to work in research into energy usage, battery and motor systems and power management.

John said: "The idea is more than ten years in the making and came about partly through living, driving and cycling in London and partly through being involved in the creation of futuristic vehicles for films.

"Issues around emissions and sustainable transport are particularly high profile at the moment and Microcab has the potential to help to tackle these challenges. It can complete over 100 miles on each full tank of hydrogen, is virtually silent and produces only water vapour as an emission, so is perfectly suited for city centre use."

"Our aim is to see the vehicle in mass production."
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Which part of the DDA will these 'taxis' meet?

http://www.microcab.co.uk/

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IDFIMH

Coventry Evening Telegraph (England)

October 25, 2007 Thursday

Eco car hits the streets

AN ECO friendly taxi which runs on hydrogen and was designed Coventry is set to hit the streets next year.

The Microcab, designed by Coventry University senior lecturer John Jostins, is to be tried out in Birmingham in 2008. The government is to pay for five microcabs to ply for trade in the city. If the trial is successful they'll be mass produced for use around the country.

The Microcab has just been short listed for a Lord Stafford Ward for entrepreneurial spirit.

Mr Jostins, who did much of the development work at the university, said: "Issues around emissions and sustainable transport are particularly high profile at the moment and Microcab has the potential to help tackle these challenges.

"It can complete over 100 miles on each full tank of hydrogen, is virtually silent and produces only water vapour as an emission, so is perfectly suited for city centre use.

"Actually seeing the Microcab on the roads next year will be a dream come true and being short listed for the Lord Stafford Awards is another step towards our aim of seeing the vehicle in mass production."

The Microcab is three metres long, pollution free and almost silent. It can cover 100 miles on a tank of hydrogen.

Lord Stafford said: "John has spent years on this project which he is clearly passionate about and is now on the brink of making it a marketable product."

A version of the Microcab was used at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester five years ago for spectators to get between competitions.

Mr Jostins has been involved with special effects for TV series such as Dr Who and Blackadder and built the R2D2 robots for Star Wars. He created futuristic vehicles for Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus for Channel 4.
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OK so it runs on a fuel which is not easily available has a very limited range what is the passenger and luggage carrying capacity ?

Also if its out of a star wars film how come it doesn't fly ?

That's the Mk2 version.

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IDFIMH

http://www.microcab.co.uk/gallery.htm

A little on the small side.

regards

jd

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Its a tuk tuk in disguise !

What about the fares going to the airport

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=z07K29Fc15U

As this is still technically a prototype, they may well make a larger version, with 6 seats and the ability to carry a wheelchair, but they will have to increase the range to about 250 miles and the speed up to 70 mph for rural area's, and be below 10k in price
how much does hydrogen cost??????? if a waist product 0.10p a gallon, or what ever its measured in

I thought that taxis needed to have the capacity to seat a minimum of 4 passengers and have rear doors.

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Grandad,

I was of the same opinion and I was wondering which licensing authority would license such a vehicle?

If any LO would like to write in to TDO stating that they would consider licensing such a vehicle in its present format then we would appreciate your input. If on the other hand any LO would like to suggest any changes to the vehicle then we would also welcome those views as would the vehicle manufacturers?

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

I bet red ken would license them if he thought there was lots of votes in it !

Its a Smart car