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.
-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.
-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.
-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.
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Helsinki+taxi+entrepreneur+opts+for+an+electric+car/1135270128006