The Netherlands has recently announced that all taxis and rental cars in the country’s five large municipalities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven and Tilburg – will be zero emissions vehicles by 2025. The rest of the country has another five years to comply. Major companies in the taxi and rental sector, including Uber and Leaseplan, have also signed up to the new agreement.

“Taxis cover a lot of miles,” says Vivianne Heijnen, State Secretary for the Netherlands. “This is a good step towards a cleaner environment with less traffic noise. It’s very important that we make these agreements in close contact with the sector. It is not easy for many taxi entrepreneurs, so I want to make sure that the switch to an electric taxi or hydrogen taxi is feasible for them.”

Operators are aware that this has been coming for some time, so they have been preparing for the capital investment required. The Dutch government hasn’t offered subsidies to taxi owners investing in new EVs, but a climate programme for taxis has been in place in Amsterdam for many years, with ranks dedicated to zero-emissions taxis.

Pioneering initiative

The move is important for European advocates of zero-emissions vehicles in cities. The Netherlands has been a pioneer in this area, with financial incentives long being used to encourage car buyers to choose electric. Just as EVs have become more commonplace on roads in other European nations, reaching Dutch levels, the taxi agreement is likely to usher in such agreements in cities around the continent.

It also comes as Oslo gears up for zero-emissions taxis being the only game in town by 2023. The Norwegian capital is set to be the first metropolitan area in the world to install wireless induction charging stations for taxis. Norway will ban the sale of all internal combustion engine (ICE) cars by 2025.

Sture Portvik, Oslo’s electro mobility manager, said: “From 2023, all taxis in Oslo will be zero emission. Together with the taxi industry, we will make sure that the shift is as user friendly and efficient as possible.”

Wireless induction charging involves EVs parking on charging plates installed on the ground (in a taxi rank, for example), with a receiver installed on the taxi, which enables charging up to 75kW.

Scaling up

The Netherlands and Norway are both countries with relatively small populations – 17.4m and 5.3m respectively – so such large-scale dynamic infrastructure changes could be considerably easier to introduce than in more populous neighbouring countries, such as the UK or Germany. That’s not preventing Nottingham City Council exploring this route with its Wireless Charging Electric Taxis (WiCET) trial - in recognition of its need to achieve governmental net zero targets.

If the UK target of 2030 for the ban on the sale of new ICE cars is to be met, we will have to adopt similar rules governing the emissions from taxis and private hire vehicles by then, at the very latest. The infrastructure upheaval will be challenging although much can be learned from the trials and programmes in Nottingham, Norway and the Netherlands. Whatever the obstacles, we can expect and should look forward to emission-free taxi rides in the coming years.

Check out the CIHT Podcast archive for inspirational takes on transitioning to net-zero including Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh discussing behaviour change in January 2022’s CIHT podcast.