China Declares Death Of Gas Taxis In Beijing, Only Electric From Here On Out

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GRA

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
14,018
Location
East side of San Francisco Bay
Via IEVS: http://insideevs.com/china-declares-death-of-gas-taxis-in-beijing-only-electric-from-here-on-out/

. . .Effective immediately, Beijing will begin a phase-out process for gas-powered taxis. Those taxis will be replaced by pure electric cars, like the BYD e6 taxis seen in the images associated with this post.

Reports suggest that some 71,000 taxis roam the roads of Beijing. Right now, only 4,000 or so of them operate under electric power.

The phase-out begins now. Any new taxi entering service from here on out will be required to be pure electric. As older gas taxis are removed from service, their replacements will be required to be battery powered. Obviously, it will take some years to replace the whole 67,000-unit fleet of gas burners, but the process is underway right now. . . .
 
At the bottom it recognizes the challenge of this switch due to the lack of charging infrastructure.

On a recent trip to Amsterdam, we found that we could arrange for an electric taxi - it was a Leaf. Seemed to work well there. So I think China has some examples they can study to increase the odds of getting it right.

Wasn't the eNV200 supposed to be in the U.S. by now as a taxi?
 
Pretty amazing to hear that they have 4000 electric taxis already.

(O.T.: Riding in a taxi in China has to be one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. Taxi drivers would regularly cross the double yellow line to pass cars in front of them. One time the person I was with told the driver we were running late and to hurry, so the driver started to pass the car in front of us that was already crossing the double yellow line to pass the car in front of it. :eek:)
 
jlv said:
Pretty amazing to here that they have 4000 electric taxis already.

(O.T.: Riding in a taxi in China has to be one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. Taxi drivers would regularly cross the double yellow line to pass cars in front of them. One time the person I was with told the driver we were running late and to hurry, so the driver started to pass the car in front of us that was already crossing the double yellow line to pass the car in front of it. :eek:)
Hey at least there are lines on the road! In Indonesia they drive the same way but there are no painted lines and the roads are only 2 lanes wide through most of the country. Once we were passing slower traffic and so was someone else coming the other direction so we passed that car on the wrong side of the road, they passed us on their wrong side, and then both of us weaved back to the correct side as the slower passed traffic came by. That was interesting!
 
jlv said:
Pretty amazing to here that they have 4000 electric taxis already.

(O.T.: Riding in a taxi in China has to be one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. Taxi drivers would regularly cross the double yellow line to pass cars in front of them. One time the person I was with told the driver we were running late and to hurry, so the driver started to pass the car in front of us that was already crossing the double yellow line to pass the car in front of it. :eek:)
It may not take them long to replace the fleet they have.
 
VitaminJ said:
jlv said:
...(O.T.: Riding in a taxi in China has to be one of the most horrifying experiences of my life...
Hey at least there are lines on the road! In Indonesia they drive the same way but there are no painted lines and the roads are only 2 lanes wide through most of the country. Once we were passing slower traffic and so was someone else coming the other direction so we passed that car on the wrong side of the road, they passed us on their wrong side, and then both of us weaved back to the correct side as the slower passed traffic came by. That was interesting!
Going further OT, one could ask if in a future world of self driving cars roads would we even want to have lines or lanes, or have all the cars driving on the same side of the road. Perhaps everything should be questioned, in this future world the roads are just paved surfaces where cars and trucks are routed dynamically based on algorithms that optimize everything. For example on a two lane road, if the majority of cars are headed in a particular direction at some time of day (say out of town in the afternoon) and just a couple cars are headed into town, the entire surface could be used for outbound traffic while the inbound cars are pulled over temporarily. Yeah it would suck to be in one of those inbound cars but the collective time savings would be enormous. It could all be quite a sight!
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
VitaminJ said:
jlv said:
...(O.T.: Riding in a taxi in China has to be one of the most horrifying experiences of my life...
Hey at least there are lines on the road! In Indonesia they drive the same way but there are no painted lines and the roads are only 2 lanes wide through most of the country. Once we were passing slower traffic and so was someone else coming the other direction so we passed that car on the wrong side of the road, they passed us on their wrong side, and then both of us weaved back to the correct side as the slower passed traffic came by. That was interesting!
Going further OT, one could ask if in a future world of self driving cars roads would we even want to have lines or lanes, or have all the cars driving on the same side of the road. Perhaps everything should be questioned, in this future world the roads are just paved surfaces where cars and trucks are routed dynamically based on algorithms that optimize everything. For example on a two lane road, if the majority of cars are headed in a particular direction at some time of day (say out of town in the afternoon) and just a couple cars are headed into town, the entire surface could be used for outbound traffic while the inbound cars are pulled over temporarily. Yeah it would suck to be in one of those inbound cars but the collective time savings would be enormous. It could all be quite a sight!
That assumes that motor vehicles are the only users of roads, and that there's no cross traffic, pedestrians, bicyclists, delivery vehicles, etc. It might well work for freeways to have x total number of lanes and be able to assign a changing amount for travel in each direction, sort of like what's done on the Golden Gate Bridge now with movable barriers, just without the barriers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVKcRHKH4Js but I don't see that as an option where you don't have limited access roads with no at-grade crossings.
 
Small taxi operators will keep their ICEVs on the road as long as they can, rebuilding the motors, patching them up... it'll be many years before all are gone. Think "Cuba."

When there are no painted lines on the roads, no one can cross them illegally.
 
The reason Cuba has maintained cars since the 1950s is because they had no other choice. All those cars are held together with chicken wire and scraps and the engines are all from a Lada or Russian tractor. Assuming that same situation would happen in China, where more lithium batteries, brushless motors, and just plain electronics are manufactured than anywhere else in the world, doesn't make sense to me. A taxi driver wants to spend the least $ per mile on their vehicle and EVs just plain are cheaper in every way, as long as someone builds it in the first place and it can get you the needed distance.
 
VitaminJ said:
A taxi driver wants to spend the least $ per mile on their vehicle and EVs just plain are cheaper in every way, as long as someone builds it in the first place and it can get you the needed distance.
If this was true then there would be no need for an ordinance.
 
SageBrush said:
If this was true then there would be no need for an ordinance.
Of course I addressed that in the 2nd clause of the sentence you quoted which in turn was part of a discussion about the future and a comparison to Cuba. The ordinance was paired with the launch of an all electric BYD taxi of which development was heavily funded by the Chinese government and is sold with government subsidies. Supply, nor the needed range nor number of charging locations are at the point they need to be. I'm sorry this is all information that I figured anyone reading this thread would already have, my apologies if you haven't been following along.
 
Back
Top