Large Tesla taxi fleet at Amsterdam’s airport gets updated with Model X electric SUVs

BIOS-groep, a taxi company operating in Amsterdam, was an early adopter of electric vehicles and built the largest fleet of Tesla taxis (167 Model S sedans) back in 2014.

We reported last year that they started selling their Model S vehicles and now we’ve learned that they are updating to new Model X electric SUVs.

Tesla’s vehicles have become particularly popular with taxis in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, and are starting to get there in America too. Last year, we talked to the very first Tesla Taxi driver in North America when his Model S hit 100,000 miles.

More taxi companies and drivers are taking advantage of the low-cost of operation and Tesla’s 8 year or unlimited miles Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty.

And no one took more advantage of it than BIOS-groep’s Schiphol airport-based electric taxi fleet in the Netherlands. They have been operating the largest Tesla taxi fleet in the world – though they might soon be beat by Dubai – since 2014.

In a ‘Customer Story‘ featured by Tesla last month, Stef Hesselink, Managing Director of BIOS-groep, elaborated on the use of the vehicles:

But the Model S have held up beautifully since they’ve been put to work in 2014, having an average of over 250,000-300,000 km on each odometer by the end of 2017.

They say that “taxis and other commercial vehicles have a very different usage pattern and could drive up to over 100.000 km per year.”

Now they confirmed the move to Model X:

We loved Model X, and the ability to transport up to seven adults as well as their luggage coupled with the high residual value of the Model S, made a very appealing case,

They are apparently changing the “entire fleet” of 167 vehicles.

Tesla said that the taxis are primarily charged overnight or during downtime on level 2 chargers, but the fleet also has access to a dedicated Supercharger station capped at a 60 kW capacity.

They plan to expand the Supercharger station at the Schiphol airport.

Tesla has been known to build those dedicated stations for private fleets. Two years ago, we reported on Tesla building its largest privately-owned Supercharger station for a taxi fleet in Montreal.