Green tech start-up to launch UK’s first zero carbon taxi service

The UK’s first electric vehicle (EV) taxi service using 100 per cent renewable energy is to launch in London this autumn targeting business customers.

Thriev, a green tech start-up, is partnering with British Gas to put 1,000 zero carbon cars on the roads by the end of 2014. Business customers will be able to hire the "chauffer-driven" EVs, which will initially be rolled out with Nissan LEAF and Peugeot iOn cars and powered by wind energy from onshore and offshore farms owned by Centrica, parent company of British Gas.

The fleet will be charged using one of the UK’s largest rapid-charging networks – capable of charging a car from 20 per cent to 80 per cent in 20 minutes – supplied by EV infrastructure firm Chargemaster. The charging network will be installed, maintained and supplied by British Gas.

Thriev, based in London’s digital hub Shoreditch, will provide the vehicles and 'intelligent transport’ technology that aims to improve traffic flow and passenger and journey efficiency.

Thriev joins a number of eco-friendly private transport services already operating in London, including GreenTomatoCars, GoGreenCar and ClimateCars, but it will be the first to offer a zero carbon service and claims its model will enable it to deliver a lower cost service to the customer.

"Business fleets up and down the country are suffering from cost and carbon inefficiencies. Thriev will deliver zero emission services in the urban centres at low cost by deploying state of the art technologies as well an innovative commercial model. This will mean our service will be cheaper and more convenient than owning a car in places like London both for businesses, but also private use," Ian Mihajlovic, co-founder at Thriev said.

As the cost of car ownership increases in UK cities and businesses look to cut their carbon footprint, car sharing schemes and eco-friendly transport services are increasing, but growth of pure EV personal transport has been much slower, hampered by the lack of an adequate amount of accessible charging options and the high cost of electric cars. As of August 2013, just over 5000 cars had been registered through the Plug-in Car Grant since its launch in 2011. Meanwhile, plans under the Electric Vehicle Delivery Plan for London estimate that, by 2015, there will be 25,000 charge points in the capital, but of these only 2000 will be in publicly accessible car parks and 500 will be on-street.

British Gas and Thriev said they aim to be become the UK’s most extensive high-speed charging network and help businesses green their operations through smart urban transport solutions.

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