China International Import Expo: Shanghai taxis get overhaul ahead of trade event

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Still with familiar colors outside, Shanghai taxis have been refreshed with a smart system on the inside.

JESSICA STONE SHANGHAI "Shanghai is a city that's always changing - and just in time for the expo, Qiangsheng taxi company is changing over part of its fleet to new electric vehicles. Come on. Let's go take a ride."

Zhu Ai min has been driving cabs for 23 years. Driving this electric model is easy he says because it's got an automatic rather than manual transmission. It's also responsive and quick.

Basic commands in this Alfa Romeo EV are all voice activated. Opening windows, turning on music and adjusting the volume. GPS not only gives the driver directions he says but helps him avoid traffic too. And there's a lot more of that than there was when the company's taxis first hit the road.

Zou Sheng rong still remembers picking up his first passenger 26 years ago in a VW Santana like this one. He loved being a driver at a time when most people rode bicycles. Shanghai had just started its economic reforms.

The Santana was the first type of car to be made in China, the first to serve as a Shanghai taxi. Zou says before long roads appeared and then widened. Flat land filled up with skyscrapers.

Shanghai is always moving towards the future. And now that future is electric. China builds nearly half of the world's supply of electric vehicles and last year, the number on the road eclipsed those being driven in the US.

Electric is environmentally friendly says Zhu. It's developing so fast here. It's cleaner. It's bigger and There's less pollution.

Shanghai's government is encouraging the use of electric vehicles. So More and more of them will become the taxis of The future.

And thanks to mobile apps and mobile pay, more and more Chinese families will be able to take them for a ride. Jessica stone, CGTN, SHANGHAI.