NYC’s Yellow Cabs are Going Green

New York City’s yellow taxis are famous the world over for their sticky floors, rapidly moving meters and drivers who can’t speak enough English to say, “we’re lost.” These icons of New York have been burning gas to go 14 miles per gallon. Mayor Mike “I’m not running for President” Bloomberg announced yesterday that such mileage is unacceptable, and by 2012, the city’s 13,000 cabs will be hybrids.

Taxis, of course, aren’t the same as other cars. In New York, where the medallion that allows one to operate as a taxi service costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, cabs will often operate around the clock. Moreover, tourists from Omaha and Osaka show up with luggage that needs lugging to and from hotels, so cargo space is an issue. To date, the Ford Crown Victoria has been THE New York taxi, with some innovation in recent years to add vans and such.

Mayor Bloomberg is challenging the Taxi and Limousine Commission to go hybrid at the rate of 20% per year. There are currently just 400 hybrid cabs in New York today. As older cabs wear out, hybrids will take over. The TLC has approved eight models of hybrids in New York streets: the Toyota Highlander, Lexus RX 400H, Ford Escape and Saturn VUE Green Line (four SUVs) as well as the Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Honda Civic (four sedans). The Japanese companies clearly have an advantage here.

That said, markets and industries move when a large order drops. Hybrid taxis for 13,000 New York cabs would have been a big enough order a few years ago to possibly get GM or Ford to really push the technology. Now, it merely represents a sizeable bump in demand, but it won’t influence the market on its own. An opportunity was lost, perhaps because no one was paying enough attention to fuel costs other than Toyota back then.

Hybrid taxis, like other hybrid cars, cost more than the conventional sort. When gas was $1.50 a gallon, it wasn’t worth it. However, at $3+ a gallon, the numbers work out much differently. The Ford Escape taxis get 36 mpg, against 14 for the Crown Victoria, resulting in a savings of $10,000 a year at current gas prices. In other words, over a four year period, the fuel savings cover the cost of the car. If gas prices get much higher, the TLC won't even have to impose the change -- owners will be falling over themselves for the savings.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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