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BBC:
Electric black taxis have hit London's roads under plans to improve air quality but critics say their cost will put drivers off "going green".
The cab costs £55,599 up from £45,000 for the newest petrol equivalent.
Chris Gubbey, boss of manufacturer the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) insists the cab will "play a major role in helping to improve air quality".
The launch comes weeks ahead of rules requiring new cabs in the capital to be capable of emitting zero emissions.
More than 9,000 such taxis, roughly half the current black cab fleet, are expected on London's roads by 2021.
The £10K price difference should break even in two years of savings on fuel, less if maintenance costs are factored in. But will that make up for lost revenue from fares the cabs can't accept while recharging?
(Score: 5, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday December 05 2017, @09:50PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E.#Better_Place_battery_swap [wikipedia.org]
It didn't work on the first big deployment, but it might work next time, and I agree a fleet like the black cabs would be a good place to guarantee revenue.
The design constraints and crash test requirements make battery swapping cars far from trivial, but it's a mostly solved problem waiting for the right moment (like tablet computing was for a while).