Airport minicab deal for seven-seat hybrid

Embarque, a new executive minicab service operating in London and all the major airports will be transforming its vehicle fleet by adding 22 seven-seat Prius+ models through January and February.

Already operating a fleet of vehicles with uniformed drivers 24 hours a day seven days a week, Embarque is a sister company of Carey Worldwide Chauffeured Services, who provide premium chauffeured services in over 500 cities worldwide, and a pioneer of the chauffeur industry since 1921.

Embarque has set itself an agenda to minimise all aspects of their business impact on the environment. A carbon neutral company, it invests in two projects around the world to eliminate the effect of CO2 from its fleet. At Embarque’s head office in West London, 30% of its
electricity is sourced from wind farms using Ecotricity, and a strict 'Reduce Reuse Recycle' policy operates for all office consumables in conjunction with Greener World Recycling.

The Embarque service is also available in major US cities, where Toyota hybrid vehicles are already a key feature in its service.

This focus on the environment includes a procurement policy designed to research new products relating to fuel efficiency which meet their needs.

The recently launched seven-seat Prius+ with CO2 emissions of 96 g/km and combined fuel consumption figure of 68.9 mpg (in T4 grade) has met these requirements.

Greg Mendoza, managing director of Embarque said: "At Embarque we are serious about our responsibilities to our customers as well as the environment, that is why, once we identified the Toyota Prius+ as the ideal private hire vehicle due to it’s outstanding environmental credentials, excellent passenger and luggage capacity, as well as high levels of safety and comfort, we had no hesitation in deciding that we would replace our entire fleet. We have also been extremely impressed with the support we have received from Toyota during this process."

All the vehicles are grey T4 grade models, supplied by Currie Motors Business Centre in Twickenham and financed through Toyota Financial Services. Standard features include cruise control, automatic air conditioning, Heads-up display and panoramic roof with automatic sun shade.