Tokyo Taxis to be Electrified

Electric vehicle firm Better Place has announced plans to collaborate with the Japanese government to carry out groundbreaking electric taxi trials involving vehicles with switchable batteries, it has emerged.  The venture will see Better Place working alongside Nihon Kotsu – the main taxi firm operating in Tokyo – with support provided by Japan’s Natural Resources and Energy Agency.  Scheduled to get underway at the beginning of next year, this new electric taxi project will come in rapid succession to a swappable battery demonstration carried out by Better Place in Japan in early 2009, which was a success.

Electric Taxi Technology

Taxis in Japan make up just two per cent of the vehicles using its roads.  Despite this, the distances they cover make them responsible for about 20 per cent of vehicle CO2 emissions.  Tokyo’s taxi population is around 60,000-strong, way beyond the level found in other major cities like Paris and New York and, should the electric taxi technology reap benefits, it could be expanded to other parts of the world too.  The technology involved could also filter down into the wider automotive industry.

Tokyo Electric Taxi Project

The Tokyo electric taxi project will involve the construction of a dedicated swappable battery facility in Roppongi Hills – a large-scale property development in Tokyo.  The taxis themselves, meanwhile, will be based at a present site which is exclusively for environmentally friendly vehicles to use.  Once the taxis are in commercial use, data relating to the length of time it takes to switch batteries, how far the vehicles can travel and how durable the batteries are will all be accumulated and assessed.

“Japan continues to be a leader in automotive engineering and innovation, and the government’s funding of Better Place for the world’s first battery switchable electric taxis is a testament to the country’s commitment to sustainable transportation”, Better Place Japan’s President, Kiyotaka Fujii, said in a statement issued on August 26th.

“This puts the Better Place battery switch system to use in a real-world application involving heavy-use vehicles that drive much more than the average passenger car.  It also enables us to begin to convert taxis to clean, zero emission transportation.”