BYD and greentomatocars have signed a memorandum of understanding to create London’s first fleet of all-electric minicabs with 50 e6 vehicles to be supplied by BYD for trials in the UK capital.
greentomatocars describes itself as London’s largest “quality minicab service” and expects that the 50 electric BYD e6 models will be available for its customers to use from the second quarter of 2013.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “It is my aim that London’s minicabs and taxis will be zero-emission by 2020, which will have a major impact on air quality. Every year the fleet is getting cleaner, making our city an even more attractive place to live, work and visit. Encouraging many more electric vehicles is a key part of this transformation, so it is great news that greentomatocars has committed to operating 50 of these super clean machines from next year.”
Jonny Goldstone, managing director of greentomatocars, added: “As a car, we see strong parallels between the e6 of today and the then-unfashionable Toyota Prius of 2006. It’s exciting to think that, even as a five-car start up, we played a major role in making the Prius popular; given the scale, experience and high-tech infrastructure we now have at our disposal, we’d love to “do a Prius” with the e6, and help propel electric vehicles into the automotive mainstream – where they deserve and, for all our sakes, need to be.”
BYD says its e6 taxis have been driven a total of more than 14 million miles globally. The e6 features a 75kW motor and BYD’s own Fe (iron phosphate) battery, which gives the car a range of up to 186 miles on a single charge in urban conditions, with a top speed of 87mph. BYD says the Fe battery pack can be fully charged and discharged for more than 4,000 cycles.
