Cheap electric cars are used as taxis in Phu Yen, practical or not?

In recent days, the community of people interested in cars has been buzzing with images of Wuling Mini EVs with yellow plates, a type of plate originally reserved for vehicles providing transportation services. It is known that this series of vehicles will aim to exploit taxi services in Phu Yen.

Many people question the feasibility of exploiting this mini car model into passenger transport service business. Other opinions say that the newness and low price can help the above model compete in the niche market.

According to research, the business using Wuling Mini EV as a taxi is not yet officially operating but is in the process of recruiting drivers and related positions such as switchboard staff, accountants… Specific fares may not be announced yet but is expected to be a low-cost taxi service.

In fact, Vietnam is not the first market to have a unit using mini electric vehicles to provide transportation services.

In Laos, an electric vehicle transportation business in Vang Vieng has a daily car rental service (with driver) to explore tourist attractions. Wuling Mini EV rental price is 80 USD (about 2 million VND) for 1 day.

This unit also operates VinFast VF e34 with rental prices starting from 60 USD (1.5 million VND) for 4 hours (maximum 50km), 110 USD (2.8 million VND) for 10 hours (maximum 120km). ) (Screenshots).

Movement range and exploitability

The controversy surrounding businesses using Wuling Mini EV as a taxi in Phu Yen is mainly related to operating range. In the most advanced battery variant, this model can travel up to 170km after a full battery. The big problem here is that the car does not support fast charging, the time to fully charge the battery is about 6-9 hours.

With a maximum range of 170km, 150km will be the “safe” operating range, 20km is for problems that arise and moving to the charging point. The estimated average travel speed in urban areas is 30km/h, so a Wuling Mini EV can use up to 5-6 hours/day before needing to charge.

If a business starts working at 7:00 a.m., a Wuling Mini EV that runs until around 12:00 noon will need to be brought back to charge, and can continue to use it until about 5:00 p.m. the same day. The evening shift can last a few hours, after which the driver rests for the night and the car is fully charged when the day starts.

Personnel can take advantage if the above unit buys multiple vehicles so that the driver can change to another vehicle while waiting for charging.

Is using Wuling Mini EV an economic problem for transportation services?

Wuling Mini EV is a small electric car model, designed with 2 rows of seats but only 2 entrance/exit doors, the seating space is much more cramped than a popular car model. To convince customers to use the service, businesses will need a price attractive enough to attract users.

In theory, the 13.4kWh battery on the Wuling Mini EV gives the car a range of 170km. Each charge, calculated according to the high electricity price of 3,858 VND/kWh, will cost about 52,000 VND. Thus, the “fuel” cost per kilometer traveled with this vehicle is only about 300 VND.

Electric cars have another advantage: maintenance costs are very cheap. If we temporarily put aside the problem of “boiled” batteries when in use, the maintenance cost of an electric vehicle every 10,000km is only about 500,000 VND.

Suppose the fare applied for the entire trip is 7,000 VND/km (about half the price of a traditional taxi). A Wuling Mini EV runs a maximum of 300km/day (2 shifts), of which 1/2 of the distance is charged by passengers, and will earn 1.05 million VND/day. Charging cost is only about 100,000 VND/day.

Thus, the revenue each vehicle earns (minus charging fees) per month can reach 28.5 million VND. Businesses will need to pay drivers’ salaries as well as other costs to operate the machine. The advantage of using a mini electric car as a taxi is that the “fuel” cost is very low and the initial investment cost is also low.

Calculate the application of small electric cars as taxis

With limited seating space and low travel range, Wuling Mini EV taxis will not be suitable for big cities with dense user density and large space to move like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

But for tourist cities that are not too big like Phu Yen, Quy Nhon or Nha Trang, running a service business with this small electric car model still has a certain feasibility.

Mr. Le Thuong Tien, owner of a YouTube channel about cars, commented: “Suppose Wuling Mini EV is used for self-driving rental in ‘touristy’ areas, charging only 1 million VND per day, this car is already a Money-making tools are surprisingly cheap.”

Social network account Ngoc Son said: “I often call a taxi but I only travel alone, so there is no problem with the Wuling Mini EV, the car is not large and does not affect it, the free fare is a bit cheap. If there is any The company uses this car for transportation business in Hanoi, which is good. Sometimes when taking a taxi for leisure, there are often traffic jams. This Wulling is small so it’s easier to get into narrow spaces.”

Overall, using Wuling Mini EV as a taxi can give users a new, cheap form of transportation. The trade-off will be that it is only suitable for short distances, the car experience is noisy and not as smooth as larger cars, and the space is less spacious.