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Taxi Company Starts Tesla Model S Service in Tokyo

When you think of Tokyo as the world’s largest urban agglomeration economy and as one of the world’s most populous metropolitan areas with upwards of 37.8 million people, you have to think of transportation. Taxi services are part of that equation so it’s no wonder companies are more and more looking forward to including EVs in their fleet.
Taxi Company Starts Tesla Model S Service in Tokyo 3 photos
Photo: http://trafficnews.jp/
Taxi Company Starts Tesla Model S Service in TokyoTaxi Company Starts Tesla Model S Service in Tokyo
So far, we’ve heard about some of them using Nissan Leaf EVs and others even going for the hybrids the Japanese carmakers manufacture. Think of the switchable battery EVs launched almost five years ago. With the help of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo’s largest taxi operator, Better Place - an electric vehicle solutions provider - launched three switchable-battery electric taxis in the capital of Japan. Or just remember when Nissan started selling their e-NV200 vans.

In fact, Nissan is currently leading the market in the busy city (which by the way is not really a city, but officially known and governed as a “metropolitan prefecture”) when it comes to EVs. And it is no coincidence, since we’re talking about the world’s best selling highway-capable all-electric car ever.

Yet, as we all know, Elon Musk has huge plans and he’s not willing to stop “pushing the pedal to the metal”.

So here we are looking at a premiere worth mentioning, a real Tesla Model S taxi fleet in Tokyo. Since we’re still quite far from reading/talking proper Japanese (to be read: we have no clue), we were only able to figure out the interesting details. Long story short, there’s a new taxi service that uses Tesla Model S cars.

The author of the article is asking pretty much the same question we’d ask: since the Nissan Leaf is a lot cheaper than Elon Musk’s luxury EV, is it worth using the American EV instead? On the other hand though, the Tesla Model S has a bigger range.

From the driver's point of view, according to the article, it seems the sole problem is that the Model S cars don't have self-opening doors (since most of the taxis in Japan have them). That and the fact there’s no cup holder in the back.
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