Electric Taxis with Switchable Batteries Tested in Japan

Three electric taxis with replaceable batteries began service recently in Tokyo. They are participating in a 90 day trial to test the practical issues arising from real world service in a huge city. The taxis are available on the first floor of the Roppongi Hills center.

Three vehicles is certainly not a large number in a city with 60,000 taxis and 13 million people. However, the rollout is being tested and managed very carefully due to the newness of the technology. Battery swapping for electric vehicles is actually quite different from conventional fuel options. For one thing, the batteries reportedly can be changed in 60 seconds. To see a battery change and battery storage facility watch this video:

The Tokyo test is meant to demonstrate that taxis in cities all over the world could use this technology to reduce local air pollution. New York City has over 50,000 for-hire vehicles. Hong Kong has over 18,000 taxis. Even if half of these vehicles in the future are replaced with, or converted to electric, air pollution could be reduced significantly.

Better Place is the company responsible for the battery-switching technology and taxi conversion from gasoline to electricity. They plan to launch electric vehicle battery switching and charging networks in Israel, Denmark and Hawaii in the near future.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Kath R.

6:55AM PST on Jan 29, 2011

This is such good news. I congratulate Better Place for coming up with this easy to use, functional technology.

send a green star

Bon L.

1:33AM PST on Jan 29, 2011

Thanks for the info.

KS G.

12:22AM PST on Dec 4, 2010

Thanks for the article.

Beng Kiat L.

2:04AM PDT on Jul 15, 2010

thanks

Antoinette R.

5:18PM PDT on Jul 11, 2010

great news hopefully this idea spreads rapidly

Elec M.

9:39PM PDT on Jun 2, 2010

GOOD THANK YOU CARE

Maniksidha B.

6:24AM PDT on Jun 2, 2010

I hope it comes to India as early as possible.

johan l.

3:20AM PDT on Jun 2, 2010

I can only see advantages emanating from this technology.
Once the bugs have been ironed out like howmany places you can have the batteries exchanged, howmuch the range is on one battery, and what the additional cost might be!
Hopefully the large countries like the US and China get involved soon!

Stephanie A.

7:52AM PDT on Jun 1, 2010

I think this is a great start. And the more alternative energy sources we support the better.. Stephanie Alt MS http://www.of2minds.com/

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