New electric cars with twice the range of conventional vehicles and whose fast-charge points cost a fraction of others on the market were unveiled in Dundee.
Taxi company director Dave Young has been investigating the possibility of investing in a range of electric cars as taxis and says he has been “blown away” by the Chinese-built vehicles.
He says with their range of almost 200 miles before they need recharged they are much more suitable for city taxis than the fleet of electric vehicles on the market.
In addition, private operators and local authorities will be attracted by the low cost of installing their fast-charge machinery, Mr Young says.
“I have been looking at electric vehicles for around a year, and I read about a company, greentomato.com, who have a fleet of hybrid vehicles,” he said.
“They bought 50 of these Chinese-built BYD electric cars but Dundee is ahead of the game in this respect. The council is already putting in quite a few charging points and we’re away in front of everybody else.
“The normal range of electric cars is less than 100 miles but these ones run for a minimum of 186 miles before they need recharged, which is double the range.
“The second point is that Dundee City Council already has the infrastructure in place and have quite a few electric vehicles already, so this could be of huge interest to them. The fast-charge electric points only cost about £2,000 compared to some already on the market, which cost about eight times more.
“As far as Tele Taxis are concerned, we’re looking to extend the fleet and replace some of our existing vehicles with electric vehicles. We haven’t decided what make yet but the front runner is BYD from China.”