What if New York City’s taxi fleet were all electric?

Electric NV200 already on the books for development

Lately we have been discussing the fact that New York City and Nissan are putting 6 Nissan LEAFs to work as taxi cabs for a one-year pilot program in the city that never sleeps. We got some feedback which prompted a second article. Further thought developed this third and final article in this series.

In 2010 Nissan was awarded the exclusive contract to provide the City of New York with specially developed vehicles just for this project. Fullfillment of this contract will begin in 2013. More information can be found here. A total of 13,000 vehicles will be provided to support this contract. In this article we are going to explore the possibility of those vehicles becoming electric in time.

The biggest concern raised thus far has been the range restriction. The current Nissan electric vehicle (EV) can only go so far on a charge. In an urban environment such as that offered by NYC, 100 miles would be the outer limit. More likely an EV used as a taxi may see a real world range limitation of about 70-80 miles. A gasoline engined vehicle is also range limited, but its range is roughly three times that of the LEAF in this urban environment. So we started thinking of ways to address that. And, interestingly enough, the New York City taxi contract could provide a real-world test of a currently theoretical solution for the US market that is being tried out in practice in other markets. Battery swapping.

The Renault Fluence ZE (Renault is an alliance partner with Nissan) has already been developed with the ability to swap out the battery underneath the vehicle. With this vehicle construction, recharge solutions are increased. Currently there are three solutions for US buyers – 120-volt trickle charge (20 hours from empty to full), 240-volt normal charge (eight hours from empty to full), or DC Fast Charge (30 minutes from empty to 80%). Europe has no 120-volt electrical service, but the other two options would still be available to the Fluence ZE owner. In addition, in Denmark and Israel owners will have the ability to swap out depleted battery packs and have them replaced with fully charged packs in less than five minutes. This is where it gets interesting from the perspective of EVs as taxicabs in New York City.

Better Place has already developed the battery switching technology. Battery switch stations could be strategically placed around the city. Taxi owners could then decide the best battery management solution for their needs. The most likely scenario would have Better Place negotiate an agreement with the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) to provide the service to TLC licensees, which could then use any of the stations located around the city. Or DC Fast Chargers could be used during driver breaks to provide significant range increases in less than 30 minutes. That takes care of the logistics. Now let’s look at some of the benefits.

13,000 vehicles moving electrically around the city would appreciably reduce the noise pollution of the city. 13,000 vehicles without tailpipes would significantly reduce the air pollution. Let’s just look at one cab.

140 miles per shift on average. Two shifts per day is 280 miles per day times 365 days per year. That comes out to 102,200 miles per cab per year. At 25 miles per gallon (not likely an achievable number given the operating environment) this one conventionally powered cab would consume 4,088 gallons of gasoline each year. If the oil were changed every 7,500 miles and it used only four quarts (one gallon), this would require 14 oil changes per year, or 14 gallons per cab per year. Cut the interval in half to nurture a longer engine life and the oil usage doubles. Now multiply each of those numbers by 13,000. It takes more than two gallons of crude oil to produce one gallon of gasoline. That comes to a savings of over 1 billion gallons of crude oil usage per year. Just with New York City taxicab conversion to EVs. Now extend that out to the taxi and other fleet vehicles throughout the 50 states. Tell me again why this experiment is going to be over pretty quickly?