(June 21, 2012) LONDON — Professional taxi drivers will be swapping their current cars for Nissan Leaf electric cars this weekend. A fleet of zero-emission Nissan Leafs will be driving around London on June 23 and 24, offering free taxi rides.

To grab a ride, all a prospective passenger has to do is send a Tweet that incorporates the hashtag ‘#6XCHEAPER’ and their chosen destination. Nissan is also using the activity to gather consumer feedback on a potential taxi of the future.



The use of Twitter is an integral part of Nissan’s ambitious campaign, "The Big Turn On," which is spreading the EV message via social media channels and aimed to get one million consumers switched onto electric driving, in just 100 days. The 1 million "turn ons" target was achieved on the June 20, 18 days ahead of the original target.

The ‘#6XCHEAPER’ tag emphasizes that fueling an electric vehicle is six times cheaper than a similar sized gas car.

A trip from central London to Heathrow Airport, for example, would cost the Nissan Leaf driver a mere 28 pence in electricity whereas the driver of a gas-powered car would be forking out £1.68 in fuel. A trip to Oxford — at approximately 60 miles, well within the car’s range — would cost the Nissan Leaf driver less than £1 in fuel, but would cost the driver of a conventional car almost £6.

“This is part of a campaign designed to get people to turn on to 100% electric driving by busting many of the myths and highlighting the many benefits of electric cars, including incredibly low fuel costs," said Jim Wright, Managing Director of Nissan GB.

"By offering free taxi rides, we aim to show hundreds of people just how practical and affordable the Nissan Leaf is to run. As each journey costs us so little, we’re not charging passengers — there’s no point quibbling over a few pence.”