In the contemporary age of short innovation cycle, ride-hailing businesses need to adopt modern technologies to outperform their rivals. The adoption of dispatch software and apps enabled services like Uber and Lyft to disrupt traditional taxi businesses in the US and beyond. One notable business innovation aiming to shape ride-hailing industry is the integration of dispatch software with electric car taxi.
Electric cars bring Three-tier Sustainability in Taxi Business
The possibilities of business optimization become limitless when taxi app couples with electric cars. You may take a look at the potential of taxi business enhancement with taxi operator software here. Following are the areas where electric taxi service is sustainable.
1. Economic Sustainability
The electric cars are highly efficient owing to their ability to convert up to 90% of electrical energy into mechanical energy. In contrast, the thermal engine running on combustible fuel converts between 20-30%. Taking into account the cost of electricity and traditional fuel, operations of electric vehicles are three times cheaper.
Apart from the engine’s efficiency, EVs have significantly low maintenance cost. Combustion engine requires a number of additional mechanical components to ensure smooth-running. Radiators and exhausts are two notable components apart from scores of others.
However, three components, including motor, charger, and inverter completely define the architecture of electric vehicles. Even hybrid vehicles also cause significant cost reduction.
2. Environmental Sustainability
Maintenance and fuel costs do not entirely define the expenses of thermal vehicles. There are unforeseen costs which are visible only after purchasing them.
For instance, there is no tax discount or exemption for owners of thermal cars. In contrast, the owners of electric and hybrid cars have to pay significantly lesser tax. Moreover, the legislation in the past two years enables you to get a considerable discount on electric vehicles.
Besides averting regulatory penalties and surcharges, electric taxi service is becoming consumers’ primary choice for fulfilling social responsibility. Lyft’s operation in Seattle confirms this hypothesis. The company allows customers to choose Green Mode for EVs or traditional cars. A considerable number of passengers are opting Green Mode indicating a sharp attraction towards it.
3. Recharge Convenience
With a fleet of electric cars, none of the vehicles needs to go out of the way for refueling. Instead, you can have a charging station at your company’s franchise or another place of choice. Thus, EVs also save time otherwise consumed in refueling.
Overcoming the Challenges of Electric Taxi
Like any other invention, electric vehicles also pose some challenges. Nevertheless, the global resolve to mainstream EVs and phase out traditional combustion vehicles is working out the solutions.
Number of Charging Stations
The introduction of EVs developed the problem of a lack of charging stations. Unlike fuel pumps, charging stations were intensely rare as vehicle owners had to travel tens of miles for it.
However, the private-public partnership is ensuring to install more stations in every region. The aim is to increase station density up to the magnitude of fuel pumps. Companies like ChargePoint are pledging to achieve this ambition by 2025. ChargePoint itself aims to add 2.5 million new stations. It also reveals that half of the stations will be located in North America.
Range of Vehicles and Electric Taxi Operations
Another challenge for EV cars is the range of operations. Range is the distance that a pure electric car can travel after charging completely. Fortunately, many electric cars can travel over 300 km in a single charge while one of the Tesla models peaking up to 600 km. Each of these cars is capable of cruising on highways.
Low-speed cars also have an average range of about 70 km. However, they take almost the same amount of time to charge as high-speed electric cars. Thus, a driver would not be able to work for the entire day because the vehicle charging would exhaust. Thus, these vehicles are good enough for part-time drivers.
Vehicle Costs and Early Break-even Points
Both electric and hybrid cars are expensive than thermal cars. Nevertheless, customers are constantly increasing because EVs are capable of reaching break-even points sooner. This is the point where a product manages to cover the entire purchase cost by revenues.
Moreover, taxi companies reach break-even points quickly because these vehicles travel more miles than the ones owned by non-taxi owners. Tesla and other companies are also striving to bring the cost down so that EVs are affordable for customers of all socioeconomic groups.
Recycling Batteries
Critics argued that electric cars are not 100% emission free. One of the reasons is the fact that batteries have a lifetime after which they are no longer usable. Still, tech companies are striving to extend lifetime. Besides, they are also trying to recycle the batteries to provide another life to the same battery. Although the repurposing does not enable it to use a car battery, yet the product can be used to store solar energy.
Global Trends indicate High Rate of EV Adoption
Electric vehicles are depicting notable figures in North America, Europe, and China. By the end of 2011, the total number of EVs in the US was under 18,000. Six years down the road, the number increased to almost reach 200,000 vehicles.
In the subsequent year, this number further increased. Q4 of 2018 saw 210% more purchases than the same quarter of 2017.
The aim of sharing these numbers is to provide evidence for the argument that electric vehicles will completely replace their thermal counterparts. Not only private owners but taxi companies and ride-hailing services are also turning toward EVs.
Existing Companies Offering Electric Car Taxi Service
Most of the top taxi dispatch companies in the world are already offering electric car taxi service. Each one of them is planning to adopt 100% electric cars for their operations. Some of the cases are mentioned below.
Uber’s EV Champions Initiative
Uber revealed its electric cars strategy in 2018 with launching EV service in seven North American cities. It also announced to expand into other US cities and global regions. The company aims to reach over five million EV rides in the US in 2019.
As a part of its global EV program, Uber wants to switch to 100% electric cars in London by 2025. Uber’s intention to quickly evolve its global fleet into electric cars indicates that thermal vehicles would not last over five more years.
Being the most widespread ride-hailing business, the company is setting the trend as the competitors are following the suite.
Tesla’s Million Robotaxi Plan
Tesla is the inarguable pioneer of commercialization of electric vehicles. Each of its models is making rounds in the consumer circles. However, Elon Musk, the ambitious owner of Tesla unveiled that the auto manufacturing giant will introduce a million robo-taxis by the end of 2020.
If Tesla manages to achieve even a quarter of the targeted number, there will be a huge shift in ride-hailing. Each of the Tesla models is already running on batteries. Thus, Tesla is set to further fuel the competition with level-five autonomy apart from electric architecture.
Lyft and Waymo
The growing trends of electric taxi are evident in the fact that Lyft also kicked-off its EV service. After initiating in Seattle, Uber’s primary North American competitor is planning to introduce the same in rest of the US. The company is offering unlimited charging for drivers who choose electric cars.
Waymo – a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. – started its autonomous taxi service in Arizona last year. The company currently operates hybrid vehicles. However, it will refresh its fleet with 20,000 electric cars from Jaguar. The emphasis on EV by ride-hailing giants indicates that the taxi services with thermal vehicles will soon cease to exist.
Electric Car Taxi Dispatch Software
CabStartup taxi dispatch software is commensurate to the advancements in modes of mobility. The platform runs as smoothly for electric cars dispatch system as for traditional ride-hailing businesses. Our clients operate in more than 15 countries worldwide. The CabStartup cloud-based dispatch system offers the following three distinct modules.
Passenger Module
Passenger app comprises features including separate profile for each user, ride tracking, and in-app payment method. Customers may also choose one of the other methods.
The app ensures that passengers can book the nearest ride in only a few clicks on the app. Besides, it allows rating the ride and leaving feedback.
Driver Module
Drivers can also have their distinct profiles like customers. A profile allows them to view their history of rides. This ability is vital because most ride-hailing companies pay drivers depending on the number of completed rides in a predefined time period.
The users have access to navigation and route planning systems. These features ensure that drivers adopt the shortest route with the least traffic congestion. Drivers can also leave feedback and rate passengers.
Drivers can choose to switch to offline mode and get back online with only a couple of clicks. Both driver and passenger modules have high usability allowing every individual to utilize it without requiring technical background.
Admin Panel
Administrators at successful ride-hailing companies monitor every ride to ensure security for customers and drivers. Admin panel provides real-time tracking, and hence surveillance of rides. The admins can also retrieve the history of each ride so that they may resolve disputes. This panel also enables admins to block or unblock any passenger or driver from scheduling or accepting rides, respectively.
Dispatch Panel
Although the system automatically assigns the nearest and most suitable ride for requesting passengers, yet, at times, human intervention is required. Every assigned ride requires a confirmation from the dispatcher. Nevertheless, you can choose to uncheck this requirement.
Let’s Grow Together
Ride-hailing industry will not wait for undecided businessmen. Those who are uncertain about adopting dispatch technology will cease to exist in at most three years. Customers expect companies to facilitate them. Thus, they would most likely stop using your service if it is not as efficient as your rival’s services.
CabStartup understands the specific ride-hailing needs of various regions in the world owing to its widespread client-base. Test our free of charge cloud-based taxi dispatch software right now.
