Bikes rule in Amsterdam, but residents might be convinced to swap pedaling for a set of electric wheels from time to time, with the planned expansion of a fleet of electric taxis.
For the past four months, Taxi-E has been operating 10 Nissan Leaf all-electric vehicles (EVs) in the city where bikes are said to outnumber people. The company is aiming to boost its fleet to 100 Leafs next year, and to help make that happen has been building 40 standard chargers and four quick chargers that will officially go online next month. It’s said to be Europe’s largest charging hub.
image via Nissan
Amsterdam’s municipal government is also helping to grow the green transportation industry by offering subsidies of 10,000 euros ($1,318 at today’s exchange rate) toward every new electric taxi. According to Pieter Swinkels, a communication advisor for Amsterdam, helping curb air pollution in the city is one of the major reasons the government wants to eventually see all taxis be electric.
“We don’t own the energy companies as a city. What we can do is stimulate green energy by buying it ourselves, like we do for all the city buildings,” Swinkels said in a Nissan-issued statement. “We also have all the charging stations within the city use green energy, so everybody who has an electric car charges with green electricity.”
Transportation isn’t the only sector where Amsterdam’s government has gotten involved in pushing green measures over the years. The government has also helped support the use of sustainable energy generated through wind turbines, as well as biomass, hydropower and solar panels. Sustainable business start-ups, like Taxi-E, is just one of the links between renewables and industry. And it’s a model that other European companies are closely watching.
[source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Earthtechling/~3/-K2PObBABs4/]
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