taxi drivers & electric cars

My taxi driver today had just bought a new electric car and was so pleased with himself that it improved my entire day.

It was a 45K car, but he got a 15K grant, so that brought it down to 30K. Then he got a 12.5K trade-in on his old car, which was obviously quite decent, but only had 4 years left on its 9 year run as a vehicle acceptable as a taxi (I didn’t know there was a limit, but there is), so he got a 45K car for 17.5K AND electric vehicles have a 12, not 9, year limit as a taxi, so he’s got a good long run ahead of him with it.

Furthermore, he’d had it 6 days as of today & had not yet had to recharge its 433 (or something; 400+ a bit, anyway) kilometer battery, BUT had been told there was a convenient fast-charging site which charged 15 quid for the 42 minute charge, which is 35 quid less than it cost to fill up his previous vehicle’s tank for 400km of distance, so he was gleefully anticipating the 35-70 euro savings per week, depending on how far his rounds took him.

FURTHERMORE he had just learned that most of the major grocery stores now have free charging sites, and as a 15 minute charge is supposed to give you 100km, he reckoned he might easily be able to keep his vehicle sufficiently charged without ever paying for it just by plugging it in during the weekly shop.

And he was delighted with its acceleration, which he took the opportunity to demonstrate on a brief stretch of clear road, and happily told me that he hadn’t actually figured everything out about it, but he was clearly having a wonderful time and it genuinely improved my entire day. :)