Il Giornale.It - Milan like London?
Milan like London? (Electric) taxis all the same
Luca Talotta
The Etioca model was presented: battery change in 3 minutes and 350 km of autonomy.
London’s official taxis are the iconic black cabs, so called because they are black in color and often covered with advertisements that camouflage the color. Now Milan is reflecting and pondering whether to make its taxis also become iconic like those of the City. Nothing official at the moment, of course, but something is already being studied.
For the moment the city has limited itself to hosting the first, in Italy, of the 100% electric taxi from Etioca, a company based in Gibraltar and founded by the Israeli entrepreneur Mark Ishakov. The latter, in recent days, has had talks with some possible Milanese financial investors, between private and public companies. And the product was also presented to the administration of the Mayor Beppe Sala, who apparently gave a positive response. The problem, however, will be to find the method: soon the city of Rome will issue a tender to standardize its taxis, it is to be understood whether this route will also be taken from Milan.
For the moment it is a question of cognitive interviews, so there is no alarmism among the taxi associations or even among private taxi drivers: «Our product is for everyone. - admits the co-CEO of Etioca, Roberto Fiorello - it is a business model that wants to pass from the idea of purchase to that of service ». The taxis of Etioca, in fact, are not for sale, but will be rented to all those who request them: “Taxi drivers will pay 0.99 euros for each kilometer they travel and, within this amount, the maintenance, insurance, washing, sanctification, after-sales assistance and the cost of electric recharging. - continues Roberto Fiorello - with a guaranteed fixed cost, they can concentrate only on their business ».
The big news is represented by being an electric car with advertising screens on the roof (the proceeds will remain in the coffers of Etioca) and the flying change of the batteries when they run out, called in technical term “swap”: in three minutes the batteries are replaced with the new ones and the taxi driver can resume his work, with a vehicle that can travel, with a recharge, about 350 kilometers (on average a taxi driver travels 100 a day). And by the spring of 2023, when the first taxi designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro should arrive, the stock exchange listing is dreaming: “By 2024 we expect the release on the market of 10 thousand vehicles and also a factory in the area” concluded the founder Mark Ishakov . Factory that could be that of Grugliasco, towards the divestment from the Stellantis group.
