NYC Taxi Fleet to Go All Hybrid by 2012
22 May 2007
New York’s taxi fleet will go all-hybrid by 2012, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor made the announcement on NBC’s Today show.
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| Mayor Bloomberg (left) announces the hybridization of the taxi fleet. |
Currently, there are 375 hybrids in the 13,000-strong taxi fleet. That number will increase to 1,000 by October 2008 and then grow each year until 2012.
There’s an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City obviously, so it makes a real big difference. These cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes; this does a lot less. It’s a lot better for all of us.
—Mayor Bloomberg
The city will require all new taxis entering the fleet after October 2008 to achieve a minimum of 25 mpg. In 2009, all new vehicles must deliver 30 mpg and be a hybrid.
(A hat-tip to Allen!)
This guy seems to mean business. Will he go for president?
Posted by: Henrik | 22 May 2007 at 11:25 AM
Great News!
Now just imagine if all government agencies, utilities, FedEx, UPS, etc. got on board and said all hybrid in NYC by 2012. With the stop and go nature of NY traffic, that would be a huge win for the environment for NYC and all of us.
Posted by: rhapsodyinglue | 22 May 2007 at 11:45 AM
rhapsodyinglue -
I'll be content if any of the other major cities follow suit. San Francisco is sufficiently hippy to be ashamed that NY beat them to it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike@HCVN | 22 May 2007 at 02:45 PM
Good for hometown USA!
Posted by: gr | 22 May 2007 at 02:54 PM
Finally! Hybrids in taxi service save tons of money to operators, and are extremely reliable and long-lasting. Here in Vancouver Prius taxis are operatet 24/7 and ticking amazing million kilometers before retiring. And current Camry hybrid (starting to be assembled on US soil) is no less spacious than Crown Vici dinosaur.
Posted by: Andrey | 22 May 2007 at 03:57 PM
Good move at the right time.
After Australia planned to replace Incandescent bulbs with Fluorescent bulbs, Canada followed.
Now NYC plans to replace non-hybrids vehicles with hybrids, I guess other cities like LA, Tokyo, London may follow.
Posted by: Max Reid | 22 May 2007 at 05:57 PM
By all means, kill those accursed Crown Vics etals, not only cab fleets, cops too. And not to be replaced with SUVs (Pay attention CPD)
Posted by: fred | 22 May 2007 at 06:52 PM
Toyota should build a stretch Prius, just for taxi use. Make it a PIHEV, too, with fast-charge batteries. (Altairnano's would probably be cheapest to use, by their specs). In the taxis used around the clock, the savings would add up fast.
I think New York understands better than anyone else what really happened to them in 2001. Oil power greed, tempted by insufficient elasticity of demand, caused by American official indifference to the development of alternatives, made war against the West irresistable to much of the Arab world. Hats off to New York. Although I'm not sure this measure actually costs anyone anything (except for the oil side).
Posted by: P Schager | 23 May 2007 at 03:45 AM
Hey max find another car that fits all my stuff like a crown vic does and maybe depts will change then. Till then I'll keep my vic
Posted by: BG | 23 May 2007 at 12:58 PM