GREEN MEANS GO NOTTINGHAM ELECTRIC TAXI TRIAL:
DRIVERS GIVEN CHANCE TO “TRY BEFORE YOU BUY”
Hackney carriage drivers are able to trial new electric taxis as part of Not- tingham City Coun- cil’s ambitious plans to offer the cleanest, greenest fleet in the country.
Under the council’s Taxi Strategy, all hackney cabs li- censed from 2020 must be at least Euro 6 emissions standard, and from 2025 only Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) will be licensed.
The council is also investing £700,000 of funding from the Office for Low Emis- sion Vehicles to install rapid charge points across the city. Drivers can also take advantage of a government plug-in grant worth £7,500 taken off the price for eligible vehicles, such as the LEVC TX5 electric taxi.
For the trial, the rental is free: £100 deposit is required which will be fully refunded if the vehi- cle is returned in satisfactory condi- tion. The trial is for 30 calendar days: Taxi Licensing will issue the vehicles on the first Monday of the month (day 1) and expect the vehi- cle to be returned 30 days later.
KEEPING COVERED
Vehicles will be in- sured through Col- lingwood Insurance,
which will cover drivers for both hire and reward and pub- lic liability insurance. Participants must hold a clean driving licence; they must be at least 25; and must pay £250 towards the excess on the policy in the event of an accident.
Drivers can partici- pate by completing the online form:
www.snapsurveys. com/wh/
s.asp?k=15 3967604681
Participants can col- lect and return the vehicle from the taxi licensing office at Eastcroft
Depot
between the hours of 9am-5pm. Cur- rently London Elec- tric Vehicle Compa- ny (LEVC) taxis are available for trial, specifically the TX5 Range
Extended
Electric Vista Plus specification.
Because of
existing cap on Not- tingham taxi
the li-
cences, candidates cannot use their existing taxi; the participant’s vehicle will have to be given to taxi licensing at Eastcroft Depot for safe storage whilst the trial vehicle is assigned.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
A participants’ Ex- pression of Interest form is passed to taxi
verification. request
OCTOBER 2019
licensing for The
is then passed onto Drive
Electric who will fol- low up with the participant
after
driver checks are carried out; as well as issuing the rental agreement and sup- porting information.
The vehicle’s battery range is 80 miles, with the petrol tank offering an extend- ed range of 377 miles. It is recom- mended that the trial
vehicle is
charged using a 50kw rapid charger. The trial vehicle will come with a charge card to be used on the D2N2 network.
The vehicle can also be driven in ‘petrol mode’ if the electric battery has been depleted. Notting- ham CC is investing in a network of 230 rapid and fast charg- ers
across the
Not t inghamshi re and Derbyshire area, using Chargemaster units. There are now 274 charge points already available, 12 of which are 50kw rapid chargers. More information is avail- able at the local charge point project; the national charge point map ZapMap,
For the purposes of the trial, participants are encouraged to utilise the public charge point net- work. A comple- mentary £50 charge point card will be provided to each participant to charge up on the go. Home charging provision is still being explored, as the council
is
aware that some participants may have home charging facilities.
Additional funding has been secured to provide dedicated taxi-only
charge
points, which will be provide in city centre locations and key destinations [within the district]. Plan- ning for this work is still ongoing. From ‘empty’ it will take 45 minutes to an hour to fully charge on a 50kw rapid charger.
WORD OF MOUTH
There’s no better way to find out how the new electric taxi works than to speak to a user: meet
and the Chargemas- ter Polar network.
Khalid Akram, a Not- tingham taxi driver for nearly 30 years, who recently swit- ched from his TX2 diesel to the new LEVC electric taxi. “Driving the ULEV taxi has been an amazing experience; it has given me a cleaner feeling in the driving seat, whereas with my previous cab I could often feel the fumes and the smell of fuel.
“In terms of noise, I don’t hear anything; in fact it feels like a room, which for health reasons is better for me and for my passengers. I save at least 75 per cent from the cost of previous taxis if I take into account fuel consumption. The maximum I spend for
1,000
miles is only £50 compared to £250- 300 for diesel cabs.
“The financial incen- tive from the council has also been bene- ficial: I have bene- fited from the £900 charging allowance, and the charging net- work is also growing and this has made a big difference. I have been complimented by most of my cus- tomers, which makes me feel like I am driving a special taxi. Driving an ULEV taxi makes me feel that I am personally help- ing the environment by reducing pollu- tion.”
PHTM spoke to John Davis, head of Not-
tingham CC Licens- ing Department, who told us: “It’s encour- aging to see the increasing number of drivers already investing in electric hackney carriages in Nottingham. We know that switching to an ULEV can be a big decision, so our “try before you buy” scheme aims to give drivers the opportu- nity to try out the vehicle for a signifi- cant amount of time to see how it would work in practice.
“We have three LEVC cabs available in our scheme at the moment, and we hope to expand this when a bigger range of vehicles is available. We have recently added the Nissan Dynamo to our approved vehi- cle list so this can be licensed for use in Nottingham, giving drivers more options when choosing an ULEV cab. We hope to be able to offer this model as part of our “try before you buy” scheme in the near
future, so
drivers can try out more vehicles as the ULEV market grows.”
For further informa- tion please contact the project manager overseeing the Not- tingham CC scheme: Rasita Chudasama, Principal Transport Planner, Nottingham City Council:
Rasita.chudasama @nottinghamcity.
gov.uk
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