Corriere Motori - Etioca Miner

Etioca Miner, the taxi of the future arrives: it eliminates architectural barriers and will be produced in Italy

by Edoardo Nastri, September 30, 2022

First deliveries in 2024, can carry up to 7 passengers and has a pull-out top for transporting bikes, skis or surfboards.

The new mobility also includes vehicles dedicated to public transport, including taxis. The English startup Etioca presented the prototype of Miner, an electric taxi of the future that taxi drivers do not buy but use by paying a fee of 0.99 euro cents for each kilometer traveled. The rate includes a series of services related to the vehicle such as assistance, maintenance, recharging also through the battery swap (battery change procedure that takes about 3 minutes on Miner) and washing-sanitization.

The investment

The project is ambitious. According to what has been declared, the pre-orders of the vehicle currently under discussion are already 90 thousand between Italy, Israel and Latvia and by the end of 2024 the forecast is to see around 10 thousand Etioca taxis circulate on the streets of the various cities of the world. The first production batch will be built in Italy (the name of the company that will produce the vehicles has not yet been communicated) and the estimate for 2025 rises to 45,000 units built annually to reach 100,000 in 2027. The initial investment is 400 million dollars which will become 1.2 billion in the next three years.

Digital screens

Etioca Taxi is a square shaped van 4.95 meters long, 1.95 wide and 2.10 meters high. Its volumes have been designed to make the most of all the interior space and can accommodate up to seven passengers, while the driver is in front in an isolated and safe environment. Disabled passengers can access the passenger compartment independently thanks to an automatic lifting platform that comes out of the vehicle. Other amenities available on board include digital screens that can project the route map and a minibar. The taxi is booked through the dedicated app through which you can also request a specific passenger compartment configuration, such as the “office” one with the seats arranged frontally on two lines in a 3 + 3 configuration.

Bikes too

Miner can also carry passengers equipped with bicycles or sports equipment thanks to a retractable platform in the rear of the vehicle that allows you to also load skis, surfboards, snowboards or any other object weighing up to 100 kilograms. In addition, to increase profits, two LED monitors (50x150) have been installed on the roof to transmit advertising content during the race that can change and be customized according to the type of city or even the area you are crossing. Etioca has announced that it will make use of the collaboration of designers Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro for the creation of a new research and development center aimed at the style and production of its next vehicles. Not a casual choice: in 1976 the New York Museum of Modern Art commissioned Giorgetto Giugiaro to create an innovative taxi prototype for the Big Apple. The Alfa Romeo New York Taxi is only a prototype left, but today it can be admired at the Alfa Romeo museum in Arese.