Guelph’s first electric taxi hit the road recently. But Alex Lilley of Canadian Cab didn’t come by the decision to go electric lightly.
Unlike personal vehicles, taxi cabs can drive over 70,000 km a year and frequently travel well over 600,000 km in their lifetime. Needless to say they need to be reliable and well maintained.
Alex’s uncle Phil began operating hybrid vehicles as cabs more than ten years ago. That got Alex thinking. After checking out several EVs at the eMERGE EV Show in 2018, he was ready to make the move. But his business partner – and dad – was dead set against it.
“It was harder for him to say “no” when I showed him how we could make the car payments with the fuel savings alone by switching from gas to electric.” the younger Lilley said. “And while we usually drive over 200km in a day, our Chevy Bolt EUV has a range of 350 km. So charging isn’t an issue.”
Photo: Alex Lilley of Canadian Cab with Guelph’s first all electric taxi
Now that Guelph’s first fully electric taxi has been on the road, Alex has found that he uses $17 per week to charge the Bolt. Meanwhile his gas driving cabbie colleagues spend $25 in a single day!
But lingering doubt remained. “I let Dad drive the car for the month it took to have cab equipment installed, company colours painted and the approvals in place. He loved it so much he wanted to keep it. This time I said “NO”. Dad is used to driving a gas powered Lincoln and he preferred the electric Bolt!”
“This is really exciting since taxis have to put in a lot of kilometres, and it shows that EVs are definitely up for the job. Not only are they less expensive to operate, EVs have the added advantage of lower maintenance costs, and less time in the shop,” said Shirley Hunt, eMERGE Guelph EV Ambassador. “Another advantage: for people who have chargers at their homes, apartment or condo buildings, charging is primarily done at home. But if you can’t charge at home, there are now more EV charging stations (34) than gas stations (32) in Guelph. And some of them are free of charge,” she continued.
The climate pollution that’s reduced from one electric taxi is equivalent to taking 2.9 gas cars off the road (Note 1). And if every cab in Guelph went electric, it would be equivalent to taking 300 gas cars off the road. That means: less emissions, less pollution and cleaner air for our community.
Note 1 – Emissions calculations and sources can be found here
Why is eMERGE promoting EVs?
The largest source of climate change pollution in Guelph is the burning of fossil fuels for transportation. While electric vehicles (EVs) are important, how we plan our city should be our first line of defence. Building a city that prioritizes active (walking and biking) forms of transportation, then electrified public transportation system and finally electrified private vehicles can have a significant impact. All of this needs to be done while ensuring we’ve built ‘accessibility for all’ into the system every part of the way.
Source: City of Guelph 2023-Environmental-Sustainability-Report
Internal combustion engine vehicles have no place in this century. The quicker we can take them off the road the better. Implementing transportation plans takes time and needs to be done properly. While the planning is ongoing, we can accelerate the switch to EVs.
Over 7,000 new cars are sold in Guelph every year. Getting these car buyers to make the change to EVs gives us results now. Each purchase means that we cut three tonnes of climate change pollution per year.
