Proofessional taxi drivers in London will be ditching their black cabs in favour of Nissan Leafs this weekend, as part of a promotion for the electric car.
A fleet of zero emissions Leafs (or is that Leaves?) will be roaming London on the 23rd and 24th of June, offering free taxi rides to anyone that sends a Tweet incorporating the hashtag ‘#6XCHEAPER’ and their destination.
The hashtag is meant to emphasis the point that recharging an electric vehicle is, according to Nissan, 6 times cheaper than fuelling a similar sized petrol car. The company says that, using off-peak electricity, it costs 1.75 pence to travel one mile in a Leaf but more than 10 pence per mile in a conventional car.
The company states, as an example, that a trip from London to Heathrow Airport would cost a Leaf driver just 28 pence in electricity, while the driver of a petrol-powered vehicle would have to pay £1.68. A 60-mile trip to Oxford would cost the Leaf less than £1, while a petrol motorist would have to shell out £6.
Just don’t ask about the amount of time and hassle involved in recharging the car so you can do the return trip — especially in a city that isn’t as EV-friendly as Oxford.
“This is part of a campaign designed to get people to turn on to 100% electric driving by busting many of the myths and highlighting the many benefits of electric cars, including incredibly low fuel costs,” said Jim Wright, Managing Director of Nissan GB.
“By offering free taxi rides, we aim to show hundreds of people just how practical and affordable the Nissan LEAF is to run. As each journey costs us so little, we’re not charging passengers – there’s no point quibbling over a few pence.”
The Leaf taxis will be based at their own ‘taxi rank’ at the Truman Brewery near Liverpool Street Station. They’ll be offering free rides to ‘destinations across London’ as far as Turnham Green or to the O2 Arena.
All Tweets sent with the ‘#6XCHEAPER’ hashtag will be monitored by Nissan, who will choose the winners of the free rides at random.
Consumer feedback will also be gathered in order to help Nissan gauge whether electric taxis are a viable means of future transport.
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