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DG Cars partners with Walsall’s 247 Cars to acquire Lichfield-based City Cars business Mark Bursa Nottingham’s DG Cars, one of the strongestperforming private hire fleets over the past 12 months thanks to its strong diversification into the delivery market, has made a major acquisition in Lichfield, in partnership with another major fleet, 247 Cars of Walsall. The two companies have jointly acquired City Cars Lichfield, in an innovative deal that sees both become shareholders in the firm, whose territory is situated between Nottingham and Walsall. The move creates a Midlands giant, with a combined fleet across the three businesses of more than 2,000 cars. DG has 1,250 cars in the Nottingham area, and earlier in the year we reported it had increased its fleet by 175 during the pandemic to cope with demand for delivery work, which has grown rapidly. 247 Cars CEO Shaz Ali says the City Cars operation is likely to be the first of several joint purchases as the companies look to fill the area between their two centres. Ali describes the joint business as “the third entity” – which means the two companies are still able to make individual purchases in and around their own towns, while using the third entity to serve “the houses in between the edge of Birmingham and the edge of Nottingham”, which includes major towns such as Tamworth, Burton and even Leicester.
Ride-hail car supplier WeFlex rebrands as focus shifts to EVs Mark Bursa WeFlex, which supplies cars to private hire drivers on a rent-to-buy basis, has switched to supplying only batteryelectric cars. The company has announced a rebrand to coincide with the change in strategy, with a new green ‘lightning bolt’ logo. WeFlex was founded by former Climatecars boss Nicko Williamson (pictured). Climatecars was a pioneering “green” private hire operator with an all-hybrid fleet, launched in 2007, which was acquired by Addison Lee in 2015. Williamson said the change was being driven by a number of factors in the London market. “When
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“We’re very careful about who we approach,” Ali said. “We want people with a thirst for growth and collaboration. He said 247 and DG were also looking for synergies, in areas such as training and quality control. Walsall’s 247 Cars has 700 vehicles and has also grown in the pandemic thanks to a move into north Birmingham, which has added around 250 cars in the past 12 months. The acquisition of City Cars adds a further 50 vehicles to the combined group. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, DG Cars had been acquisitive, buying Western Cars in Derby, which added 170 vehicles, and Z Cars in Newark, which added 30 vehicles. The company has also been a pioneer of electric taxis, a move
that won it the Professional Driver Environmental QSi Gold Award in 2019. 247 Cars, which started in 2013, operates a largely Toyota-based fleet across a large area of the suburban West Midlands to the north of Birmingham, covering Walsall and surrounding towns of Bloxwich, Pelsall, Willenhall, Darlaston, Aldridge and Brownhills. The company’s fleet includes more than 100 minibuses with 6-16 seats, and also operates courier van services. DG and 247 have a history of working together – at one point 247 ran a call centre operation on behalf of DG. The City Cars business will be managed by 247 as Lichfield is much closer to its operating base than DG’s Nottingham head office.
the congestion charge rose to £15 a day, the mindset of drivers suddenly shifted to electric vehicles,” he said. “EVs went from not being easy to sell to everybody wanting one.” Forthcoming changes to the congestion charge later this year will see plug-in hybrids lose their exemption too, which is “really accelerating the adoption of pure EVs”, he said. The availability of EVs with higher ranges of above 200 miles is also a major factor, he added. The Uber Clean Air Fund, which offers weekly discounts to Uber drivers wanting to go electric, has also been a major driving force, he added. “Over last summer we saw that drivers were ready to switch to electric, so we decided to stop buying ICE cars.” WeFlex is working closely with Uber, but not exclusively. The focus at the moment is on ridehailing drivers. “We don’t have a product aimed at
private hire fleet operators at the moment, but we’re working on it,” he said. Currently around a third of the 700 cars being supplied via WeFlex are EVs, and that percentage is rising as existing contracts come to an end. “We’re working with Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Jaguar and MG,” Williamson said, singling out the MG5 estate for special praise. “It’s just great for the sector. Basic but nicely made and with a 200-plus mile range – and so much cheaper than other EVs.” WeFlex took delivery of its first MG5 two weeks ago, and the car is keenly priced. Currently WeFlex offers the MG5 for £135 per week, considerably cheaper than Nissan Leaf Accenta (£146), Hyundai Ioniq Electric (£165) or Kia e-Niro (£199). WeFlex is also carbon-offsetting all its own costs, and is planting a tree for each car it supplies. Williamson believes a market recovery will drive strong growth for WeFlex, and he plans to expand the number of cars on rent-to-buy to around 1,200 within 12 months.
APRIL 2021
