E-taxis from 2025

Stalled changeover: Did Vienna act too hastily?

Pioneering project that is stalling: switching to e-taxis could greatly reduce particulate matter pollution.

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER, Krone KREATIV)

The plan has been known for two years: From January 1, 2025, only cabs with CO2-free drives will be allowed on Vienna's streets. The changeover has been slow, with only 2.6 percent of cabs being fully electric so far - despite bulging subsidy coffers. What is going wrong here?

The switch to e-taxis has so far been limited to Vienna and is part of the "Mobility Master Plan 2030" drawn up by the Ministry of the Environment. However, the planned decarbonization of Vienna's cab fleet is anything but running smoothly: only 220 taxis have switched to an e-vehicle so far.

Lack of infrastructure is preventing the switch
"This is not because our cab drivers are not environmentally conscious or would not like to switch to an e-vehicle - that is certainly not the case," explains Eveline Hruza, spokesperson for Taxi 40100, to krone.at. The lack of public and semi-public charging infrastructure is the main problem. This would prevent taxis from wanting to switch. 

And this is despite the fact that the City of Vienna is offering many subsidies. The Ministry of Climate Action (BMK) wants to support e-taxis with 1000 euros for the purchase of an electric cab. The City of Vienna is even providing 10,000 euros per vehicle - staggered per kilometer driven with paying passengers until the maximum amount is reached.

It's not that our cab drivers are not environmentally aware - many would like to switch to an electric vehicle. But the lack of infrastructure makes it impossible for them, despite the financial incentives.

Eveline Hruza, Pressesprecherin Taxi 40100

E-taxis rely on public charging infrastructure
However, financial incentives alone are not enough if the practical implementation in everyday working life is organized inefficiently. Take a Tesla or an e-Skoda: with a charging capacity of 11kW, the charging time is around three to four hours or seven hours respectively. "A taxi driver who comes home after a shift and has to charge his Skoda for seven hours and then get up in the middle of the night to take his cab from the charging station - that's too inconvenient," explains Hruza. Because if electric drivers leave their vehicle at the station after a full charge, they face additional fines.

E-taxis can already be charged wirelessly via charging plates in the floor. But instead of rolling this out across the board, it is still a pilot project.

(Bild: etaxi-austria.at)

Ideally, every cab driver would have a charging station at home, but this is not the reality, especially if they live in rented apartments. Taxi drivers are therefore dependent on the public or semi-public charging network - such as supermarkets or petrol stations. If a cab driver wants to charge their e-car, a charging station must first be available.

An online reservation system - as is already used in Finland, for example - does not yet exist and the prices at many charging points are not visible to electric drivers. This is because they can vary depending on the charging station: "Unlike with petrol drivers, a taxi driver only knows how much he actually has to pay at the end of his charge," explains Hruza. 

All taxi drivers know that an electric vehicle is cheaper in the long term and the high level of comfort is also appreciated. But what good is that if the necessary infrastructure is not in place?

Eveline Hruza, Pressesprecherin Taxi 40100

Only ten percent of fast-charging stations available
The solution would be fast-charging networks with a charging capacity of 50 to 150 kW. "However, only ten percent of such fast-charging stations are currently available in Vienna," says the Taxi 40100 spokesperson, adding that fast-charging points could reduce charging times by around 50 percent, as is the case with conventional charging stations. According to Hruza, the city's ambitious goal is forward-looking and important, but a goal was probably set here without thinking through the logistics of how to get there to the end. 

High fine dust pollution in Vienna
"We are definitely in favor of this project," says Hruza. Only the expansion of the fast-charging stations would be of significant value. This is because the complete decarbonization of cab fleets would significantly reduce particulate matter pollution in urban areas, which is already a health problem: As recently as mid-November, this was noticeable in Vienna - experts even warned against exercising outdoors. If the upcoming EU values for the maximum permissible annual PM 2.5 pollution levels are taken as a benchmark, Vienna would have failed to meet the requirements in each of the last three years.