CA spends $3M on 6 EV Taxis

[TEG]

I think the above is dead now given Better Place shuts down US, Australian operations - Globes .

And besides, CODA seems to be in a similar situation.

 

[jerry33]

Wow, no wonder there's so much skepticism toward Tesla. No one else is making it in this biz.

Well, the "replace a battery" scheme is capital and labour intensive. It also relies on battery standardization. Other than the Telsa, EVs have such a short range that they aren't real cars to the majority of people. A 60 mile Leaf, Coda, or Mitz is really only useful as a second car, in which case they have to compete with used cars. Bear in mind that for the majority of people their second car is the old primary car, so it's essentially free except for fuel and maintenance. It's hard for any new car to compete with that--regardless of motive power.

 

[TurboFroggy]

Why not spend that money on 24 fast charge stations and 50 Leafs? The Leaf is already a proven taxi platform in many countries. Even my company has a couple as shuttles and they don't have a fast charger, not yet anyway.

 

[doug]

So I had been wondering what happened with this eTaxi project since both Coda and Better Place have gone bankrupt. Did that $3 or $7 million ever get spent? Was it all lost.

It was obvious that this money would have been better spent using Tesla Model Ss (or even Nissan Leafs) with fast charging insteading paying to develop battery swaps in the low quality Coda. For that kind of money you could buy extra vehicles to swap cars instead of just the battery. Now that Tesla has demonstrated 90 second battery swaps, I wonder if this program (assuming it's not completely dead) could be restarted using the Model S.

 

[RichardC]

I recently was picked up by a Leaf taxi in Dublin, Ireland by a taxi driver who was far from technical. He didn't know the capacity of the battery or the amperage of his charger, but knew that the car saved him about $10,000 in fuel charges a year and could be charged for free at numerous points in the city. He was very excited to hear about the Model S and said that he was going to order one.

It was great to see that adoption by someone who found the electric option to be compelling from a pure business perspective. The installation of wireless induction charging at the taxi ranks should provide a complete solution to range concerns. See: http://inhabitat.com/wireless-induc...on-german-buses/primove-induction-charging-2/

 

[adiggs]

Am I the only one thinking that for fleet use, that a private party could pay the capital cost for a swapping station and battery packs, and use the Model S and the follow on cars as an outstanding 24/7 vehicle?

Plus switching from gas to electricity gives that private party some measure of control over their energy budget. They can choose to spend money on solar for instance, and generate some of what they will to fuel the fleet at prices that are fixed for 25+ years. I wonder if Tesla would be willing to sell a swapper station and battery packs to a private party, as part of an order of 100's of Model S's? Seems like that could be a good deal all around.

The new New York taxi?

 

[cwerdna]

I recently was picked up by a Leaf taxi in Dublin, Ireland by a taxi driver who was far from technical. He didn't know the capacity of the battery or the amperage of his charger, but knew that the car saved him about $10,000 in fuel charges a year and could be charged for free at numerous points in the city.

Not surprising. Gasoline in Europe is expensive.

If AA Membership |Fuel Prices - Petrol & Diesel in Ireland & Europe
is right, 1.57 euros per litre is ~$7.78/US gal per Google's great built in converter (Google for 1.57 euros per litre in us dollars per us gallon).