Cabify continues its plan to create mobility that eludes the combustion car. Or at least part of the company, as the green platform effort has focused on vehicles that are directly owned by its Vecttor subsidiary. In this context, the Spanish unicorn once again represents an agreement with another car manufacturer. At the same time with some novelties. Hand in hand with Toyota, with Toyota Mirai, Cabify has added four models from the line hydrogen cars to the Vecttor park – VTC vehicles that work directly to teach him.
Available in the Cabify Eco category, the technology company points to this announcement as a groundbreaking measure in the VTC business. These are the first VTC hydrogen vehicles in the industry; some of them are joining electric Renault – of Chinese origin and on a subscription model – which they announced a month ago after a €40 million loan of European origin they received for electrification investment. Only for the business unit and with investments for its internal fleets. Open, yes, to third-party vehicles that meet the plan’s minimum.
So Cabify now has 44 new vehicles. 40 electric cars from Renault and 4 more hydrogen cars from Toyota Mirai. There is no data on the company’s global performance yet. The Spanish brand does not publish data on how the service, which they conceived as 100% eco-friendly, is developing.
The community of Madrid is behind this green Toyota model
Not surprisingly, Cabify turned to Toyota for a partner to expand its EV fleet. The Japanese firm has been one of the favorite brands for the taxi and VTC sector. As for the Prius hybrid model, it is one of the fetish brands currently allowed as a form of public and private transport. It complies with the ECO labeling rules that these vehicles must comply with.
For the hydrogen vehicle division, Toyota also has Administration approval. In fact, the Community of Madrid approved in March of this year Toyota Mirai as the first electric car to work as a taxi in the capital. Something that the Japanese firm already knew: since the presentation, this hydrogen car was designed for passenger transportation, and not for personal use.
And the fact is that there are quite a few options for hydrogen cars. The list has shrunk to a whopping two models on the market. The Toyota Mirai starts at €70,000 and the Hyundai NEXO starts at €73,450. With a range that averages over 600 km and a charge time of around 5 minutes per filling, they are certainly expensive models for the passenger market. On the table are promises of new models from BMW, Hopium and Jaguar that should hit the market in the coming months.
On the table is also a more than safe entry to Toyota’s hydrogen vehicles. The Community Assistance Program of the Community of Madrid, coming from European funds, takes into account both the hydrogen car and the VTC. With a 10 percent discount (which could mean up to 7,000 euros) in the final purchase price, which includes individuals and companies in the sector, the institution, managed by Isabel Diaz Ayuso, aims to increase the fleet of these vehicles from 0 to 1,000 in coming months for both taxis and VTC. Since the only authorized signature is essentially a Toyota hydrogen car, we have a winner.
Passion for hydrogen cars
While it is true that a hydrogen car is better than any internal combustion vehicle, it is not a panacea in the transportation world. The Honda CEO himself, who had already unveiled a prototype hydrogen car at the time, withdrew from the race, saying he did not understand Toyota’s insistence on the model. Why? middle way which implies the creation of a car of this type.
It is true that the vehicle traffic is “green” but not the path to take to get there. According to industry data published Transport and environmentThe efficiency of a hydrogen car is on average 30%. An internal combustion vehicle has 13%. If we move to an electric vehicle ecosystem, we will reach 77%.
Thanks to load dynamics similar to internal combustion vehicles, we find the biggest Achilles’ heel: load points. In this case, Cabify will operate its 4 hydrogen vehicles in Madrid. To date, there is only one charging point in the capital, on Avenida de Manoteras north of the city, owned by Enagas, and has no plans to open new ones. Given the cost of opening a new outlet – roughly over a million euros – and low demand, this does not seem like a viable project in the short term.
Added to this is the production process for the “gasoline” of these hydrogen vehicles. Produced by electrolysis – the separation of oxygen and hydrogen – today it is still a long and expensive process. Not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of energy and water consumption to obtain a charging cell.
Is a hydrogen car the future of Cabify and VTC? It’s not entirely clear, and so far the charging options – or rather the only option – separate this model from economies of scale for a sector with almost 16,000 taxis and over 8,000 VTC in the hands of various companies. . As of October 2021, there were only 15 vehicles of this type registered in Spain, with the most promising future for this “green” model being the transport of goods or even aircraft. And the fact is that with only 4 cars in circulation, the problem is minimal. at the moment
Source: Hiper Textual
