Florence gets a new fleet of all-electric Nissan Leaf taxis

As we recently reported, Nissan’s all-electric Leaf is becoming increasingly popular with taxi companies and Italian taxi drivers have proven it again this month.

Florence is getting a new fleet of 67 all-electric Nissan Leaf taxis.

The municipality opened 70 new taxi licenses for electric vehicles and Nissan announced this week that almost all of them were used to buy Leafs:

“With more zero emission cars on the road, Florence is shaping up to be one of the most advanced Smart Cities in Italy. Last year, the municipality of Florence called a tender notice that involved 70 new electric taxi licenses, all of which have now been allocated. Nissan LEAF is now the most popular EV taxi in Florence after 67 taxi owners decided to buy a Nissan LEAF ENEL EDITION.”

The Japanese automaker has sweetened the deal by providing a free Wi-Fi hotspot service, which is capable of powering up to eight devices.

Taxi companies and drivers are increasingly looking at electric vehicles to cut their operating costs

There are other electric vehicles becoming popular with taxi companies, like Tesla Model S with over 100 units at the Schiphol Airport or Montreal’s growing fleet of Soul EV and Tesla Model S with Taxelco.

But Nissan is having a lot of success in Europe with this new fleet in Florence following a fleet of 110 Leafs in Madrid and Uber using a fleet of 20 Leafs in London.

Nissan says that it has now sold over 1,000 electric vehicles – both LEAF and e-NV200 models – to taxi drivers and companies all over Europe.

With the next generation Leaf coming next month, we have seen some impressive discounts on the 2017 versions and some of those taxi drivers and companies could be taking advantage of them.

In order to support the new fleet in Florence, energy company Enel is building 6 new DC fast-charging stations in the city. It will add to Enel’s already extensive network of 179 public charging points in Florence – though they are mostly level 1 and level 2 charging points. Therefore, the DC fast-charging stations are going to be welcomed.