Addison Lee is a London-based private hire cab and courier company. Founded in 1975, the company has over $1.2 billion in revenue per year, carrying out over 20,000 trips a day.
This week, they announced a change in business, switching its fleet to all-electric. Now, as they have over 4000 vehicles, it is no small feat, but the company said it would make it happen by 2023. We think this is a great encouragement for other carriers or transportation companies to go on a similar route.
They started the switch this week, with a £160 million investment ($219 million), and an order of 450 Volkswagen ID.4. This is the largest order of VW ID.4 yet, and we can tell the company is looking long term, as they had ordered one of the best SUVs from the market.
“We are pleased and excited to build on our existing partnership with Volkswagen by adding the ID.4 to our fleet. This will be the first fully electric vehicle offered by Addison Lee and reflects our premium position in the private hire market.” – Liam Griffin, CEO of Addison Lee
The company then plans on adding about 200 electric vehicles to its fleet every month, which is going to be costly. Another aim for them is “to offer 20,000 zero-emission journeys per day”. The charging infrastructure to facilitate this move isn’t currently in place, with just about 300 quick chargers in London. Addison Lee is working on this issue as well. You can read the full letter, by the CEO, here.
