Japan’s MK Group runs the most luxurious taxi fleet services in the country and it just added a bunch of electric BMW models to its various different fleets. Spread out among the two different divisions, the Kyoto MK and Tokyo MK fleets, it’s added 30 BMW i7s and five BMW iXs.
According to MK, adding electric luxury cars to its fleet help in transforming and decarbonizing urban mobility. It’s also a good look for MK, as it will be able to offer customers who prefer zero-emissions vehicles a way to luxuriously get around Japanese cities. Many wealthy customers prefer the green image of driving EVs, so hailing an EV taxi like a BMW iX is a useful service. Apparently, Kyoto MK feels the same way, as it plans to electrify 30 percent of its fleet by 2025
The BMW i7 is the first electric luxury sedan in MK’s fleet but not the first electric car. It currently has Mercedes-Benz EQCs and a couple of different hybrids. However, the only high-end luxury sedans are cars like the Rolls-Royce Ghost and Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. The BMW i7 is probably the most impressive electric luxury sedan on offer at the moment anyway, as its interior and cabin tech are far flashier and more exciting than those found in the Mercedes EQS sedan.
There’s only one BMW i7 sedan on offer at the moment, the xDrive60, which packs two electric motors that combine to make 536 horsepower and 549 lb-ft of torque. It can get from 0-60 mph in a claimed 4.1 seconds but it’s quicker than that in reality. So anyone that schedules one as a taxi is in for one helluva ride. Tell the driver to step on it and feel all of that electric torque.
It would be cool if MK equipped its fleet of i7s with the theater screen option, which would allow customers to watch movies in the back seat. That would be the ultimate service and would allow the fleet of BMWs to stand out from the rest of MK’s cars.
[Source: BMW]
