London’s greenest private hire service now offers chip-fat-fuelled executive and MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) options. Reacting to customer demand, greentomatocars has expanded its fleet of environmentally-friendly private hire vehicles with the addition of biodiesel-fuelled 8-passenger MPVs and executive cars.
Head of Innovation at greentomatocars, Hamish Phillips, comments “Since we launched five-and-a-half years ago, our fleet has been exclusively comprised of the hybrid Toyota Prius, an unquestionably green choice for people travelling from A to B in London. Recent feedback from customers has shown that they needed other options but still wanted to make a consciously green decision when choosing their private hire provider. With this in mind, rather than simply bolting on a non-green solution, we wanted to maintain our green identity and biodiesel-fuelled vehicles fit this requirement perfectly.”
The non-hybrid fleet is fuelled by biodiesel refined from locally-sourced waste vegetable oil – oil that has already been used in the cooking process – meaning that emissions are greatly reduced in comparison to vehicles using petrol or diesel: international research has shown that life cycle CO2 emissions are reduced by 60%-90% when using 100% biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.
To begin with, the biodiesel fleet will run on a 30% biodiesel blend (due to limitations with manufacturer warranties) which equates to a reduction in CO2 emissions of at least 20%. greentomatocars has further big plans for 2012 and is in discussions with a number of large clients in London to develop truly sustainable transport partnerships whereby the private hire company will use its clients’ waste vegetable oil to power cars for their own staff. Hamish comments,
“We, and our clients, find the idea of closed-loop recycling incredibly exciting – giving businesses the option of reducing their emissions by using their own waste vegetable oil to fuel cars for their own staff is a perfect way of enhancing their existing CSR plans whilst keeping their transport decisions consciously green.”
With over 200 environmentally-friendly vehicles now on London’s roads, greentomatocars has firmly positioned itself as the greenest option for the Capital’s taxi and minicab-users and remains the most innovative private hire service in town. Pass the salt and vinegar!
