Addison Lee, a London-headquartered private hire taxi and courier company, and the UK’s largest private vehicle hire firm, today announced that its entire fleet will become fully electric by 2023. Its current fleet currently stands at around 4,000 cars.
More electric taxis for London
The company says it will spend £160 million ($219 million) to switch to EVs two years ahead of all other large private hire vehicle operators in London, including Uber.
Addison Lee is partnering with Volkswagen to buy ID.4s. It will be the largest purchase of EVs by a private hire provider in the UK.
From November, the taxi firm will put 200 Volkswagen ID.4s on London’s roads on a monthly basis.
Liam Griffin, Addison Lee’s CEO, said of charging infrastructure for their soon-to-be-huge fleet:
With only just over 300 rapid chargers in London, the charging infrastructure to support this switch isn’t yet in place. That’s why we have been busy looking for EV charging partners to provide innovative solutions to meet our drivers’ needs, and we hope to be able to share information about those soon.
Earlier this year, Addison Lee purchased London taxi fleet operator Comcab, which is made up of 650 electrified black cabs.
Read more: electrek
