A good article, but how typical that british bureaucracy is making it difficult! (DVLA can't revise the pollution stastus of a registered but converted vehicle!)...
The taxi is part of a small but growing industry replacing polluting fossil fuel engines with much cleaner electric power.
EV conversions have already extended well beyond London cabs, to almost anything that previously ran on petrol or diesel. Classic cars can be upgraded to run without exhaust emissions. Several companies are “upcycling” vans to make them run on batteries; Equipmake re-engineers buses in Norfolk; and New Electric in the Netherlands even creates battery-powered tractors and rollers.
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The principle is consistent: why scrap a perfectly good vehicle when you can just add a battery and motor instead?
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the key to making conversions profitable is looking at vehicles whose owners have spent heavily on features behind the engine, and who could then benefit from the much lower running and maintenance costs of electric vehicles.
Conversions cost between £20,000 and £40,000 depending on battery size, but fleets should make that back in about three years in fuel savings alone, Boyner says. By comparison, a fully fitted refrigerated van might cost £70,000.
Boyner hopes to convince owners of the likes of refrigerated vans, ambulances and even camper vans that they can keep the body of the vehicle and just swap out its engine.
“When you want to change, do you want to invest all over again?” Boyner adds. “It’s a niche, but a big one. The more the money is spent [on the existing vehicle], the more the market opportunity.”
Upcycling a black cab or bin lorry: growing industry converts old vehicles to electric
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AE-NMidlands
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Upcycling a black cab or bin lorry: growing industry converts old vehicles to electric
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... o-electric
2.0 kW/4.62 MWh pa in Ripples, 4.5 kWp W-facing pv, 9.5 kWh batt
30 solar thermal tubes, 2MWh pa in Stockport, plus Congleton and Kinlochbervie Hydros,
Most travel by bike, walking or bus/train. Veg, fruit - and Bees!
30 solar thermal tubes, 2MWh pa in Stockport, plus Congleton and Kinlochbervie Hydros,
Most travel by bike, walking or bus/train. Veg, fruit - and Bees!
Re: Upcycling a black cab or bin lorry: growing industry converts old vehicles to electric
Make do and mend in these days of mass production is just not viable. These days one needs a continual stream of identical jobs and of a quantity to bring down material costs.
"Nelmes says that several companies have struggled to do conversions at a scale large enough to reduce costs, but that they could make a positive impact.
“This is an expensive thing to do in the UK, and there are regulatory barriers,” Nelmes says. “There is a bit of me that is sceptical. Maybe it will be a niche practice. But equally, if you can find a way to promote standardisation then it could work.”
"Nelmes says that several companies have struggled to do conversions at a scale large enough to reduce costs, but that they could make a positive impact.
“This is an expensive thing to do in the UK, and there are regulatory barriers,” Nelmes says. “There is a bit of me that is sceptical. Maybe it will be a niche practice. But equally, if you can find a way to promote standardisation then it could work.”