G'day All
During the week I had a couple of 'phone discussions from a taxi
driver considering a conversion plug-in hybrid electric taxi. Yes, he
has been talking to the other taxi driver that is building the
electric Targa car (Datsun 1000, for those interested).
I have him thinking of his real use, but at first estimate he does 6
airport-to-city runs per day, an average of around 35km per run, so a
little over 200km (125 miles) of daily "normal" use. Maybe 50,000 to
60,000km per year, but he'd going to look at that and give me an answer.
He would need a full-size (for Australia, I suppose mid-size for the
US) station wagon or equivalent people-mover, as the airport run on
average is families with luggage, so 4/5 passengers plus too much
luggage for a sedan. Typically Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore
variants are used, but I suspect he'd need to go into a different
vehicle to be able to take the pack weight and a smallish onboard
genset plus potentially a gas (LPG) conversion system for the genset.
I suspect the system needed would not go into a normal wagon, so may
need to be done in a smaller people mover that is a variant of a
commercial van in order to get a suspension upgrade and a lot of
under floor space.
I think it'd be marginal, but it may be enough of a saving for him to
do it, but looking at a 6-to-7 year vehicle life, 300,000 to 450,000
kilometers (200,000 to 260,000 miles) so needing to save enough over
the life of the vehicle to pay for the conversion. As long as it does
that, and isn't a hassle for him to use, it would give him a "point
of difference" and should mean he ensures that he gets a better
"pick" of the trips (regularizes the journeys by customers
recognizing and choosing to use him over other taxis). There are a
lot of days when he sits at the airport for an hour without a
pick-up, then has to drive into town to do a pick-up to take to the
airport, so there is potentially a big benefit to him to be
recognised as an individual over being "just another taxi", and get
fares both ways for most trips.
Concept that I think would work for him is a battery range of 140km
to 160km (90 to 100 miles), since he lives 10 min from the airport, a
lunchtime top-up is do-able with overnight full charge. An on-board
LPG or diesel gen-set for range extending (a % of trips are up to
100km return, he's thinking about how often he really gets asked for
them). Diesel or LPG cabin heater (same fuel as gen-set). He is OK
with knocking back trips that would be beyond his range, which would
rarely happen anyway (only a few times a year does he go further than
100km round-trip in a single journey).
All comments welcome, but please remember that a vehicle of choice
has to be a current model Australian compliant vehicle, so although a
1968 Cadillac would be big enough and different enough it won't get
past first look.
Ideally I'll need to be able to give him some options and costs, but
as it stands he may be best off staying with LPG.
Thanks
Regards
[Technik] James
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