A London-based company is hoping to prove that business interests and environmental sustainability can go hand in hand.
E1 Transit held a launch event at the Covent Garden Market Wednesday morning to celebrate its first fleet of all-electric Tesla vehicles, connecting London to Toronto.
“We basically provide intercity connectivity between cities across Canada,” spokesperson Christopher Misch told AM980.
“We do ride-sharing, we do airport runs, we’ll take you to a Jays’ game. Leave the driving to us, sit back, free Wi-Fi, free snacks, free water.”
The Tesla Model S cars can hold four passengers in addition to the driver, with hourly pricing within London or any trip starting or ending in London at $85 per hour. A round-trip from London to Toronto’s Pearson Airport is listed at $200.
“Nobody’s hiding the fact the cars are cheap – they’re not, they’re very expensive, they’re exclusive,” said Misch.
“If you think of a typical transit company — buses, trains, etc. — [there are] huge infrastructure costs and a lot of maintenance. The fuel alone is exorbitant. So with E1 Transit, we don’t have those costs so we pass those savings to our customer.”
Misch anticipates growth to snowball with a dozen vehicles going back and forth from London to Toronto with three or four daily trips.
“We’re not here to compete with a lot of the operators in London, you know there’s taxi services, there’s Uber, there’s other services that are really strong here. What we want to do is to connect cities across Canada. Now that said, we will go to rural areas … we want to connect as many cities as we can, and if the demand is there, we’ll be there.”
Misch expects the company to add a fleet connecting Calgary to Banff in as little as six weeks’ time before later expanding to connect Whistler and Vancouver.
As part of the launch celebrations, the first 10 Londoners to register their name with E1 Transit will get a complimentary ride.
—With files from Natalie Lovie.
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