New York Cities Yellow Cabs to Go Green — hybrid, that is:
Every yellow cab in New York City will be a fuel-efficient hybrid by 2012, and by next year, the city will begin phasing in stricter emissions and mileage standards for all new taxis, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday.Today, there are just 375 fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles among the 13,000 taxis rolling on city streets. That number will increase to 1,000 by October 2008 and will grow by about 20 percent each year until 2012, when every yellow cab will be a hybrid.
Hybrid vehicles run on a combination of gasoline and electricity, emitting less exhaust and achieving higher gas mileage per gallon. Changing over the fleet is part of Bloomberg’s wider sustainability plan for the city, which includes the goal of a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
If all this is true, why does the mayor have to mandate the switch?
Automakers said hybrids are uniquely well-suited to be taxis. Many of them, like the Ford Escape, run solely on battery power while stopped or at low speeds, so they don’t cough exhaust while navigating through typical city traffic.
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Hybrid vehicles are typically more expensive, but the city estimated that the better fuel efficiency will save taxi operators more than $10,000 per year.The standard yellow cab vehicle today is the Ford Crown Victoria, which gets 14 miles per gallon. Turning over the fleet by 2012 is not an impractical goal; the life of a New York City taxi is typically about three to five years because the city’s TLC requires all vehicles to be retired within a certain period.