Plans are afoot to introduce electric-powered taxis in Kuala Lumpur, with Big Blue Taxi Facilities announcing it plans to deploy 20,000 EV cabs in the city by 2020, Bernama reports. According to Big Blue Service founder Datuk Shamsubahrin Ismail, the specially-designed vehicle will be provided to taxi drivers operating under the Big Blue umbrella.
He said the vehicle is being developed by local company Fieldman EV with the technical assistance of a Chinese company, and will be designed to meet the needs of Malaysia’s road and weather conditions. It will be powered by a 80 hp motor and have a 400 km operating range on a single charge, with a top speed of 140 km/h.
He added that two experts from China have arrived to study the needs of the vehicle, based on road, environment and temperature conditions in the country. The first 1,000 examples of the EV cab will be CBU units, with he remainder being assembled locally. First deliveries are expected to occur in 2019, with all planned units to be delivered by the end of 2020.
“This electric vehicle has unique features just like the iconic black taxis in London, which can bring modernity to the taxi scene,” he said. He added that RM200 million was being invested to implement the project and government grants would be given to taxi drivers registered under Big Blue.
Shamsubaharin said that the EV taxi, besides being more environmentally friendly, will be cheaper to maintain and operate, which should increase revenue for cab drivers.
The plan to bring about electrification for cabs isn’t all that unique – London has already begun the move towards EV cabs with the introduction of the TX5 range-extender cab by the London Electric Vehicle Company.
Closer to home, Chinese electric vehicle brand BYD introduced 100 e6 electric taxis in Singapore last year, and a company in Thailand has just announced plans to deploy an EV taxi fleet of 100 BYDe6 vehicles in metropolitan Bangkok. The five-seater BYD e6 has an operating range of 400 km per charge.
Better start from truck and bus first..
This Datuk talk big. But do you know how much the replacement battery cost? It cost somewhere around RM50k
Anything rosak…..can the poor cabbie guy replace it with his super small income?
Singapore is very different. Their currency is so high. So, the battery cost is small matter for the Singapore electric teksi driver to replace. In their terms, it will be only “a few thousand” to replace the battery
In Malaysia, we like to syiok sendiri. We don’t know that our currency is so weak and low, anything to replace not only the battery but parts of the electrical system will be few thousand ringgit.
Already with Proton Saga, teksi drivers are complaining cost to repair is so high.
Even if Big Blue is bearing the cost, it is our Government grants being waste on them which will be used for exorbitant repair cost.
It’s OK. Funds collected through GST would be many more times than the repair cost of Proton cars. Money from the rakyat goes back to rakyat, so why not?
some more got banjir kilat around KL.. habislah…
(Like) Big Blue Taxi.
(Dislike) Grab Taxi
Our Government spends RM100k to maintain each Perdana in the Ministry for 3 years. This is despite Proton providing 5 year warranty
So, you can imagine how much the cost to maintain a electric vehicle going to be. At least a few times more than the Perdana.
This is where Government grants are going to be wasted
hope his new venture will be a success…he already got enough headache with his daughter & NFC case
his daughter wat happen?
he was convicted of fraud trying to cheat NFC and the Government of MILLIONS of ringgit.
How to trust this company?
hahaha…. Big Blue Gangsters more like it. Try turning down one of their drivers.
Where is the electricity come from? Fuel?… hope not!.
is electric the way to go forward? what about hydrogen
1 milllllion dollars
Electric Vehicles…environmentally friendly, less and low cost maintenance and absolutely the FUTURE of automobility. Most countries are already moving toward EVs. Year 2020 is approaching. I am totally a big fan of EVs. Lets us electrified Malaysia.
Get the electric 3 wheels auto-rickshaws..much cheaper, no air-conditioning, small enough for any road, shorter time, much longer range, etc
Tak boleh harap langsung. Cakap kosong.
You are real stupid: In europe fuel is RM8-RM10 per liter so it makes sense to use EV. Here fuel is cheap. EV has no real world use here. By the time you take account battery replacement cost, it will cost more to run then fuel vehicle.
Dear Datuk
DO you know how many taxi in malaysia are still proton inswara on the road?
Ask them to update to new proton car before electric car lah..
If they cant update to new car how you ask them to update to electric car?