New Range Extender London Taxi

You know I'm not a fan of the London taxi having driven one way too many times. The tourists love them, but they're just dreadful to drive and drink the fuel.

Well I watched Fully Charged earlier and they had an article on the new range extender Metro Cab (not London cab - Metro Cab is their competitor). They seem to have listened to the taxi driver. The cab is fairly spacious, the passenger compartment is light and airy, you have the benefit of electric drive and a 1 litre petrol engine range extender.

I always shook my head when other manufacturers released EV only taxis that had a 100 mile range. We all know that would be about 50 miles in winter. Considering cabs can cover upto 200-250 miles in one shift (and there are 2 shifts in a day), this 50 mile range is useless.

I just hope the technology is up to the job. Hope the costs work out and that the quality control is better than the London Taxi, which from my experience was just non existent.

The New Metrocab

Metrocab: Unique Low Emission Advanced Powertrain Metrocab taxi

 

You think? I'm undecided but it has a modern take on the iconic black cab that the tourists love. I'd be curious on price though.

Anyone want to help me set up a cab company using these? lol

Just looking at the specs. It has a range of over 50 miles in EV but only a 12.2 kwh battery. That sounds like they're over cooking the battery. It won't last or am I missing something?

The Volt has a 16 kwh battery and does between 30 & 50 miles but doesn't weigh as much as that cab. The PIP has a 4.4 kwh battery and gets upto 10 miles. The Leaf has a 24 kwh battery and gets about 80/90 miles to a charge.

Anyone know how many cycles a li-ion battery has? Are these people in the right ball park with over 50 miles range out of 12.2 kwh or are we going to see problems ahead?

 

Around 70 mpg uk. Which compares to about 130 mpg uk for the PIP.

But the diesel london taxi on an auto box got about 20 mpg when I drove one. The Mercedes Vito London cab got about 24 mpg on a manual, so probably about 20 mpg on an auto too.

So this new thing would probably be an improvement.

It's also a petrol, so is cheaper to buy as a fuel and petrols are generally much cleaner on emissions (when they're running).

I think it's the way to go until Tesla do a 300 mile ranged version. In fact, maybe Tesla are missing an opportunity; why not make a World BEV taxi? A London taxi costs from £34,000 and adding options brings that price much higher. They're often purchased over 10 years. A clean BEV version with a proper range would be a seller and a good way to showcase the technology. Tesla have the model X coming out soon. Why not a taxi option like car companies used to do?

 

I don't deny the tourists love them. But the cabs are dreadful to drive and sit in as a driver. They're slow, cramped, expensive, unreliable etc. For a passenger around London they're fine, big, wide, plenty of leg room etc.

My way of explaining it is that under the more modern appearance they're still too closely based on the 1960's original. Driving one on a drive road is like driving a normal car on a slippery wet road. Driving one in the wet is like taking your Prius out in the snow. You don't drive a London cab in the snow.

And I think you see the issue. They're totally fine in London - level, dry roads. There are about 300 taxi jurisdictions in the UK and I think the London cab is only a requirement in about 7 of those. The rest totally allow the taxi but with less restrictive requirements; no insistence head room gives room that a gentleman keeps his top hat on, which is quaint for the tourists but hardly practical in 2014. The car barely sells outside the 7 restrictive jurisdictions. Why pay £34,000 for a car that is uncomfortable to sit in, catapults passengers into the air when driving over a speed hump at anything more than 0.5 mph, etc when you can buy a Prius for £22,000, a Peugeot for £18,000 and a 6 month old Ford Mondeo for £10,000.

Another way of putting it. The London cab was given US compliance in about 2006. They sold a handful. If it was so nice they'd have sold tens of thousands.

The company I once worked for/with bought 8 London cabs thinking they'd be a good buy. They were shocking. One blew up scolding me when driving up a hill and it was only about 3 months old. The company replaced them with the Mercedes Vito which is a van version of the London taxi and still meets the London compliance. It doesn't look like a cab, it looks like a van, but it's comfortable to sit in and starts and stops like a modern vehicle.

That's why I like the look of the MetroCab in the article above. It appears to be the best of both - the taxi 'look' that is recognisable by tourists and with modern underpinnings.


And a little humourous fact for you. Ever been in a London taxi and noticed a dreadful smell which went when you opened the window? Maybe, maybe not. But there was one design feature that was beneficial to the driver. The heater/ac air intake for the rear cabin was behind the driver. If as a driver you expelled some personal gas, you'd switch on the rear cabin fan and blow out back. Cleared the air in the front a treat

 

Minivans are popular outside London and the other 7 areas. London (plus others) insist on certain archaic requirements such as headroom to allow a passenger to keep his top hat on!?! (I kid you not). Also the amazing turning circle is required for access to certain hotels. Otherwise it's a protectionist idea to stop the London cab company going out of business.

Taxicabs of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then see the comments headed 'Elsewhere' and you'll see that other more modern taxi offerings are available that are not authorised in London (that black & white Peugeot cab is popular) as are minivans (people carriers here), estate cars (station wagons) and normal cars that meet certain width requirements such as the Prius and similar. Most towns have 'minicabs' as described in the above link. I was one of those.

Also a lot of seniors rely on taxis as they are on pensions or can't drive for health reasons. My experience indicates that they despise the London cab style vehicles as they get rattled around inside them. I was often turned away by seniors if I arrived in the London cab, though they loved the Prius as it was ever so slightly higher than many traditional cars. I always believe that you should give the customer what they want. Can't go wrong then

 

You're spot on.

Most people have a larger car and then a small second car. Some have the minivan, some don't. It does depend on the area. SUV's of the size you have in the US just don't exist, but smaller ones (large to us) like the Range Rover of the various types are still popular but more so in more affluent areas. What is popular is the crossover and I'm not sure if you have them in the US, but things like the Nissan Qashqai (one of the most popular selling cars) and Juke are very popular. Small SUV's like the old Cherokee like I used to have were popular in the 1990's when petrol cost the same then for us as it does for you now. Such cars which do 12 mpg are almost impossible to run at over $8 a gallon, though some do still exist.

Generally it's as I mentioned before. People have a larger car (Passat, BMW 3 series) and a small hatchback like a Yaris or Fiesta as a runabout. But in my town it seems a Range Rover is the car to have and a Mercedes E class Estate as a second car. They're ten a penny lol, just not for me

Nissan Qashqai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nissan Juke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The thing that impressed me most is that you Canadians spell colour correctly too

I notice you have the American influence in the engines though. You get the 2.5 litre version which isn't even sold in Europe anymore. It would be considered a gas guzzler here now at over $8 a US gallon.

I do like the new 2013+ Nissan Qashqai and the economy is not far off that of the Prius! I didn't realise that one option here was of a 1.2 litre petrol turbo engine! Ok, only 115 bhp but a 0-62 mph (100km/h) time of 10.9 seconds and a combined fuel economy of 50.4 mpg UK and a highway rating of 57. The base 1.5 turbo diesel is slightly slower but returns a combined fuel economy of 74.3 (higher than the Prius!) and a highway rating of 78.5 mpg UK (much higher than the Prius). It is a manual but it does show what can be achieved.

The only automatic is on the 1.6 litre diesel and gets combined economy of 61.4 mpg UK and highway of 67.3 mpg UK compared to 72.5 mpg UK on the Prius.

The new Nissan Qashqai - Nissan crossover cars

Maybe the Prius does have competition over here!

 

Didn't realise you got the Micra. They were popular here until they were built in India and quality isn't quite there. The strange thing is that your petrol is more expensive than the US but cheaper than ours which is probably why you get the small cars, but why have they put a 1.6 litre engine in the Micra? An engine that only gets 8.6 l/100km!?! Why bother? Why not use one of the more powerful smaller engines we get that still allows the same 0-60 times but get a good 50% improvement in economy?Then it would be a true eco car.

It seems the US influence of 'bigger is better' has crossed your borders