EV Taxicabs...some progress

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mczajka

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
Messages
48
It was a loooong night/early morning for the eight of us from the DC area's EV community who spoke in front of the Arlington County Board on behalf of the EV Taxicab company. Many were still there at 1:45 AM when the meeting finally wrapped up.

The room was filled to capacity with dozens of taxi drivers from competing firms who were not very happy about 40 certificates being proposed to go to a new company and many of them voiced opposition to electric vehicles with dramatic warnings of passengers being stranded on the road to Dulles airport and stories of the Nissan LEAF spending 60% of the time in the repair shop.

The Board decided to delay the final decision for two weeks so they can gather more information. We have a bit more work to do in order to help answer some of the questions that members of the board are asking in regard to EVs. We will get a list of those specific questions and share them.

In addition to the EVA/DC and MD Volt members who spoke, representatives from Dominion Power, Nissan, the Sierra Club and a local pizzeria owner who delivers pizza on electric bicycles spoke in support of the EV company.

You can see the video here: http://arlington.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2431&meta_id=105185#.ULYKvOCtR7g.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are presentations from the cab companies and a few others from the County, then presentations from the public.

There is still a lot of work to do. When Volt owner Joe Lado, member of EVA/DC and MD Volt, did his presentation, he was one of the only presenters who was asked by a Board member what the range of his Volt was. He said about 40 miles (to be conservative). The Board member, J. Walter Tejada, asked him if he had 2 cars, one to get to Dulles Airport and one to get back home. I don't know if he was trying to make a joke, because many of the cab drivers in the audience laughed, or if he didn't understand that the Volt had a range extender. You be the judge and watch the video at 6:35. I'm at 6:27 (I was quite tired and rushed to get my words into 2 min.)
 
Mark; thanks for your efforts in getting some sense into the DC area. I cant imagine why there would be opposition to this unless other taxi companies were afraid that the EVs would get some sort of advantage from curiosity seekers or something?

I wonder if posting statistics on how often ICE taxi's break down verses the reliability of EVs (as long as they are charged!) might not help?
 
That's a great idea. Thanks for any and all comments to help this effort!

I know ICE police car fleets are in the shop quite a lot too.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
I cant imagine why there would be opposition to this unless other taxi companies were afraid that the EVs would get some sort of advantage from curiosity seekers or something?

competition, I bet the number of licenses is limited..
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Mark; thanks for your efforts in getting some sense into the DC area. I cant imagine why there would be opposition to this unless other taxi companies were afraid that the EVs would get some sort of advantage from curiosity seekers or something?
Certainly a possibility, at least at first. That was the case 115 years ago when electric cabs debuted in NYC. After a while the novelty wore off and people took horse cabs, EV cabs or gas cabs, whichever was available. The EV cabs were operated as a livery service rather than something you could just hail, owing to the limitations of the batteries. Indeed, the dispatchers were under orders to be conservative and not dispatch a cab on a run that it might not be able to make. See 'The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History', by David Kirsch, for details.
 
As reported in the WAPO:

Travelers in need of a ride in Arlington County soon could be hailing an electric taxi on their smartphone and working — or playing — on a complimentary iPad while riding through the congested streets of northern Virginia.

EV Taxicab, a new Arlington-based company, plans to launch a fleet of 40 Nissan Leaf sedans — if it gets the lion’s share of 65 new taxi certificates that the County Board will award Dec. 8...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/all-electric-taxi-firm-may-serve-arlington/2012/11/28/182a25ba-397f-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
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