Over in Hong Kong, a small number of BYD e6 electric vehicles have joined the taxi fleet plying the city. According to Reuters, the Hong Kong Taxi & Public Light Bus Association is renting an initial fleet of 45 e6s for US$1,000 each per month for use as taxis, although thus far only six vehicles had licenses.
The association is the automaker’s only HK customer to date, but BYD is hoping to increase the number of e6 taxis in the city to 5,000 in three years.
The e6 went on sale in China in 2011, intended for private use on the mainland and in the United States, but sales never took off. With a sticker price of 369,800 Yuan (RM183,180), BYD only managed to sell about 1,700 units of the car in China last year.
The five-seater crossover has a claimed travel range of 300 km, and is powered by a 75 kW motor and a proprietary iron-phospate FE battery. While it takes six hours to fully charge the car via a standard 10 kW charging pole, it needs only 40 minutes through a 100 kW fast-charging station – for taxi use, the faster the better, one would think.
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Anthony, Typo on Para 4 … While it takes six “hourse”
had the opportunity to sit in one for a couple of trips in china, and this is really not bad at all..
Despite being an SUV, the ride in one of these are pretty good comparable to a Toyota Alphard. But the driver told me the battery pack has a problem as it lost capacity its nearing about 20% left of its power reserved. So for sake of conserving juice in traffic jams, he switch off the aircond when battery power reserve is low.
The fast charging cost RMB50 for a single full charged. But actual range most likely 280km. Max speed done is 150km/h.
In the States already Rm 183k, making it into our market, this car will cost more than a Bimmer .
Berjaya is a minor shareholder of BYD, will they bring in this electric car into Malaysia, time will tell :-/