First charging hub for cabs in Copenhagen by E.On & Dantaxi
Danish taxi service Dantaxi and energy supplier E.On opened a large charging hub in Copenhagen called Danhub. The site is supposed to supply up to 400 electric cabs a day and is considered crucial in converting the capital’s taxi fleet to electric by 2025.
So far, Dantaxi and E.On confirmed five ultra-fast chargers, which the partners reckon can charge up to ten taxis at a time. “Ultra-fast chargers can charge up to 300 kW, and this means that all-electric cars would be able to charge at the maximum power that the car’s battery is made for,” Pär Möller, E.On’s Head of eMobility Nordic, said. The capacity of 400 taxis a day then relies on maximising the capacity with E.On and Dantaxi assuming this would cover a significant part of Dantaxi’s current need in Copenhagen.
There are currently 300 electric taxis available in the Danish capital, operated mainly by Dantaxi, the company claims. The whole fleet in Copenhagen includes 1,700 diesel cabs which the city expects to switch to zero-emission operation within the next four years. Copenhagen plans to become the first CO2-neutral city in the world by 2025.
When hailing the new cooperation with E.On, Dantaxi’s commercial director, Vibeke Wolfsberg, pointed out that the problem of finding an available charging station had grown so big that they could not fully utilise the capacity of the in-demand zero-emission vehicles. “We have wasted too much time chasing available electricity,” she said. “This affects the customers and the owners of private electric cars who find that the electric taxis take up too many public charging stations. The partnership will benefit the people of Copenhagen, the local community, and the taxi drivers,” Wolfsberg added.
Apart from keeping the peace, Dantaxi also expects a further boost in electric taxis thanks to the new charge hub. “We estimate that this initiative will result in 200 new electric taxis on the streets of Copenhagen before the summer of 2022, and the number of diesel taxis will decrease accordingly. In our company, diesel taxis may disappear completely in four years,” said the executive.
However, only Dantaxi cars will use the hub between the airport and the city centre at Bådehavnsgade 42.
Dantaxi and E.On said they would establish further charging facilities in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense if the project is successful. They did not give technical details but taking leads from existing projects, and it is likely the chargers come from ABB.
E.On had increased its activities in Denmark and the Nordics since 2019 when the company, together with Clever, opened the pilot station of their future public charging network in Fredericia, Denmark. The aim was to build 48 ultra-fast charging stations for electric cars on motorways in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden with said ABB chargers.
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