Helsinki taxi entrepreneur opts for an electric car

EUR 100 million electric vehicle experiment to be launched in the capital area; plug-in electric cars will be acquired for the use of municipal employees

print this

By Jukka Perttu
     
      The electric Nissan Leaf accelerates briskly up the steep gradient when taxi entrepreneur Seppo Rosvall drives it out of the underground parking lot of the Stockmann department store in central Helsinki.
      Rosvall acquired his electric taxi from Holland in October.
      The car came with a price tag of EUR 31,500. As a taxi entrepreneur he was exempt from the car tax and the VAT payable on the purchase.
      Now Rosvall’s Nissan Leaf operates as a taxi in Helsinki. The Leaf is a five-seater, five-door hatchback, 25 centimetres longer than a Volkswagen Golf.
      The car is expensive, but operating it is cheap. According to Rosvall, in 100 kilometres of urban driving his Leaf consumes electricity to the tune of one and a half euros.
      With unleaded gas - and diesel - at around the same price for a single litre at the pumps, this starts to make serious financial sense.
     
Rosvall wants to show that an electric car is already a feasible alternative for example as a taxi.
      Rosvall’s statement clearly contains more than a dash of idealism.
      As a chemist, Rosvall is interested in the alternative energy technologies for automobiles. “As a taxi, an electric car already works quite well.”
      Still, Rosvall reckons that he will next acquire a hybrid-electric car equipped with an alternative fuel system, such as diesel.
     
Rosvall’s Leaf is foretaste of what is to come, namely the proliferation of electric cars.
      TEKES - the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation - is preparing to launch a four-year Electric Vehicle Systems Programme (EVE), the aim of which is to develop business operations related to electric vehicles in Finland.
      TEKES will invest more than EUR 30 million in the project. An additional nearly EUR ten million will come from the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
      Further funding will also be received for example from businesses, bringing the total budget of the undertaking to more than EUR 100 million.
      In the EVE project, an electric vehicle test environment will be created for example in the capital area, consisting of more than 400 vehicles and nearly 850 charging points.
      Around 50 or so different players, such as businesses, universities, and cities, will be included in the programme.
      Finnish business management consultancy Eera Oy will coordinate the development of the test environment in the capital area.
      Project manager Elias Pöyry believes that thanks to the project, electric cars will begin to take a hold in the awareness of the residents of the Helsinki region.
     
The energy companies operating in the capital area will take part in developing the necessary infrastructure.
      In this effort they will be accompanied by the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, and Lahti.
      “From the beginning of April, the charging grid and services should be in place for electric motorists”, Pöyry says.
      “We are not even trying to claim that the electric car would be a smart choice for an average consumer already this year. They are still somewhat pricy compared to similar internal combustion engine cars.”
     
For example, the cheapest version of Peugeot’s small electric car, the iOn, comes with a price tag of almost exactly EUR 41,000. At its cheapest, the similarly-sized Peugeot 107 costs less than EUR 10,000 new.
      That said, the operating costs of an electric car are minute compared with those of an internal combustion engine vehicle.
      The creation of the capital area test environment is based on an agreement that companies and cities in the area will acquire electric cars for the use of their employees. Little by little, electric vehicles are gaining ground in the wider world.
      The Nissan Leaf, for one, had sold more than 12,000 units worldwide by the end of August since its launch in December 2010. In Norway 850 units were sold in the space of two months. The Leaf will formally makes its arrival on these shores this coming spring.
      As of the end of November 2011, there were just 52 electric cars on the register in Finland, and around 70 vans, so there is a good deal of room for growth, even if the numbers doubled last year.
     
Plenty of new electric car models will be introduced to the market during 2012.
      The competitiveness of an electric vehicle is improved by the fact that its use is taxed noticeably less stringently than the use of a traditional internal combustion engine car.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.1.2012

More on this subject:
 Valmet car plant stakes its future on electricity

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ushering in a new ERA? Finnish-built electric sports car comes within a whisker of winning international competition (23.11.2010)
  Finnish company envisages better utilisation of wind energy to provide power for electric vehicles (6.11.2009)
  Emission targets add urgency to development of electric cars (5.11.2009)
  Finland aims at 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (16.10.2009)

Links:
  Nissan Leaf
  Nissan Leaf (Wikipedia)
  Citroën C-Zero/Peugeot iOn (Wikipedia)
  TEKES: Finland to become the test field for electric vehicle systems

JUKKA PERTTU / Helsingin Sanomat
jukka.perttu@hs.fi