A new single-passenger taxi service in London is set to become the biggest Smart fleet in Europe.

MonoCar is a new single-seater passenger taxi service, launched to cater for 70 per cent of taxi rides that carry a single person.

The fleet is currently made up of 10 Smart cars, but owner David Saxon-Jones, who launched the firm in September, plans to increase the London fleet to 500 cars in two years.

As well as taking passengers, the cars are being used as mobile billboards for multi-national companies, including Unilever, which is advertising new fragrances on the vehicles.

Mr Saxon-Jones said of the pre-booked service: “Much of the demand for our pre-booking service will come from corporate accounts. The plan is once we are established to expand the service to other UK cities. We have also been approached to offer bike services to some companies.”

The firm is also developing an online booking system and updated website over the next few weeks, along with offering a competition providing free taxi rides for a year to the winner.