As Nicko Williamson celebrates his companies first profit, he is excited by what the future for green driving may be able to offer capital cities such as London.
The young entrepreneur, only 26 years old has founded and manages his own company Climate Cars, a silver-colored fleet of low carbon chauffeured vehicles, targeted specifically for corporates.
At 23 years of age, the Climate Cars CEO found himself getting bored of driving up and down to Bristol University, when he drove past a company trying to sell green fuel. The resulting idea is now a profitable fleet of discreet Eco Silver Prius, taking London’s top businessmen around the capital city.
Nicko Williamson has a great vision for his company as he intends to one day make it have fully electronic vehicles. He is however quick to point out that the technology has some way to go before he can incorporate it fully into his fast growing executive corporate car service.
Nicko Williamsons Company can be seen as a test. If it can make financial sense out of purchasing this technology, then it will not be long before carbon free driving becomes a generally accepted normality rather than a city gimmick.
Williamson says that the electric vehicle would have to do about 100 miles before it is recharged again in order for it to make any kind of sense.
Climate Cars is fast approaching a fleet of 60 cars, targeting a turnover approaching £2m for next year. This will be achieved through the growing the fleet size by about another 40 cars.
Creating a supply of batteries that could simply be swapped by divers, is one answer which could work for climate cars, however Williamson believes the best transition phase would be a ‘hybrid plug in’.
London’s Hackney Carriages, the ubiquitous black cabs, are now finding themselves under pressure to perform against a new wave of green competitors. The black cab used to be the mainstay of the London transport system, but in recent years is has come under pressure from companies like Addison Lee and a plethora of licensed and unlicensed vehicles.
If Williamson’s hunch continues to pay off the days of corporate black cab account may well be numbered.
Written by Christine Maema
