Nottingham City Council launches ground-breaking taxi charging scheme

A new scheme in Nottingham will see electric taxis charge up wirelessly as they wait for passengers in a first for the UK.

£930,000 worth of funding from the government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles has been secured for the Wireless Charging for Electric Taxis (WiCET) project.

It’s hoped this will help Nottingham to achieve its goals to become carbon neutral by 2028, with the city already operating the second largest fleet of electric taxis in the country, behind London.

Portfolio Holder for Environment, Energy and Waste, Cllr Sally Longford, said: ‘Nottingham is once again at the forefront of efforts towards a carbon neutral, clean air future.

‘This pioneering scheme, at no cost to the council or local taxpayers, could be a real gamechanger in electric vehicle charging and we’ll be keen to find out from cabbies how it’s going and how we might apply wireless charging in the future.’

The City Council has teamed with the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) and Nissan Dynamo electric taxis to bring the scheme to life.

So far funding has been spent on the installation of electric taxi rapid charge point infrastructure near taxi ranks, as well as 300 publicly accessible sockets across the city.

Five wireless charging pads will be installed into the road on Trent Street, near Nottingham station, as part of a trial allowing taxi drivers to charge vehicles without cables at one of the city’s busiest taxi ranks.

Five LEVC and four Nissan Dynamo electric taxis have been fitted with wireless charging systems which will be loaned to drivers to learn how the technology can be developed in the future.

These vehicles were bought with funding from Innovate UK, while research and technology organisation Cenex is leading the project.

Richard Sander, technical consultant at Cenex and WiCET project manager, said: ‘We’re excited to see the works begin to install the five wireless charging pads as part of the WiCET project.

‘This marks a key milestone in demonstrating real-world wireless charging and making the transition to electric taxis easier for drivers in the future.’

Photo by Charles Etoroma