We've reported on hybrid taxis in NYC, Sydney and Dubai, but the trend isn't limited to places that also happen to be tourist hot spots. On my way to the airport yesterday, I tried a new taxi service in Lansing that exclusively uses hybrids in their fleet. OK, make that a hybrid in the fleet of one. Woodrow Campbel, the owner/dispatcher/driver, said that people don't call him because he's the green taxi in town, but he's pretty sure that his reputation will grow. In the meantime, weekend bar traffic is enough to keep his new business running; he started just two weeks ago and the money he makes taking the drunk college kids home is enough to make cleaning their vomit worth it.

Another example of hybrids in hired car action comes from Iowa City, where the Black & Gold Cab company just added a second Toyota Prius to the fleet. Owner Chris Griffin sent a note in to AutoblogGreen saying that, "To our knowledge, we have the first two hybrid taxis in the state of Iowa." Neither of these two business will be saving the planet singlehandedly, but every little bit helps.

[Source: Black & Gold Cab]

While the shift to hybrid taxis in New York City has been moving forward for a while now, not everyone thinks that the yellow cabs should be cleaner just yet. Who, you ask? Well, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade (MTBOT), for one, and they filed a complaint in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, yesterday urging an immediate halt to the city's mandate to introduce hybrids to the fleet. The cleaner cab mandate is to go into effect Oct. 1, and the MTBOT is waiting for a response from the City and the court.

The issue, according to MTBOT, is that the hybrids used as taxis in NYC are not safe for passengers and drivers because they were not built for commercial taxi use - unlike the long-serving Crown Vic, which the author of the MTBOT's report, C. Bruce Gambardella, called "the safest taxicab on the road." Hybrids like the Ford Escape hybrid pictured above are unsafe as cabs because the required partitions between the passenger and driver areas "were found to compromise their safety systems by blocking side-curtain airbags from deploying; become easily dislodged in accidents; restrict drivers from safely distancing themselves from front airbags; and diminish backseat legroom so severely -- as much as 10 inches less than in a stretch Ford Crown Victoria -- that even belted passengers will hit their faces on the hard unyielding surface of the partitions in an accident," the MTBOT said in a statement.

Let's remind ourselves of two facts: first, at the beginning of this year, we heard that 95 percent of NYC cabbies were happy with their Crown Vics and didn't look forward to the shift to hybrids. Second, the Crown Vic gets like 15 mpg. WIth high gas prices and a growing concern about the environment, can both of these things continue to be true?

[Source: Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade]

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GM has been testing its hybrids as taxis in Dubai since January and the results so far have been so encouraging they feel they may be able to replace the emirates' entire fleet of taxis, government and emergency vehicles by 2012. Despite the heat, sand and humidity on crowded streets, the test fleet has not only held up but also demonstrated their ability to achieve significant cuts in fuel usage and carbon emissions. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai (and father of 18 children) "challenged" the Dubai Road and Transport Authority (RTA) to pursue an aggressive hybrid implementation strategy in early 2007. The authorities hope that by setting a positive example, ordinary citizens will follow suit, thereby reducing vehicular pollution and making Dubai a more environmentally friendly place. GM saw an opportunity to help itself out and reportedly approached the RTA to begin the relationship. At the conclusion of data analysis the commercialization phase should begin. GM expects to be able to supply 5,000 to 6,000 hybrid vehicles for Dubai with the possibility of an additional 4,000 hybrids for the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi. Hit the jump for a bonus video of a pair of GM hybrids cruising the streets of the emirate in an RTA infomercial.


[Source: Khaleej Times]

Following the examples set down by New York and San Francisco, Boston is now requiring that all its taxis be hybrids by the year 2015. The fleet currently boasts about 50 of the gas saving cars but most of the rest of the fleet of 1825 people movers are Crown Victorias. Although the hybrids can save owners $1,000 a month in fuel costs and halve emissions, change is not always welcomed and there is some resistance to switching over. The upfront cost of hybrids approach $30,000 when outfitted with the complete taxi kit while the old rear-wheel drive guzzlers might be less than half of that when picked up second hand from city auctions. Of course, we might argue that brand new Ford Escape hybrids and Priuses would be twice as nice to drive and ride in as previously ragged-out police cars but perhaps we're biased. In any case, the decision has been made and so hybrids it will be...eventually. The seven year grace period is supposed to help out the owner-operators compete with large cab company fleets while the transition is made.

[Source: The Boston Globe]

Although it's unlikely that this will have a huge impact, the idea seems original and could greatly improve taxi operators' cash flow: A new free website has been created for the UK where you can book a taxi that would otherwise run empty. Consider that many trips taxis take are empty, adding come coordination to the chaos might save quite a number of "wasted" miles, for instance when taxis go to the airport to wait for passengers or for prearranged passenger pick-ups. The website puts drivers of those empty taxis and potential clients in contact so the cabs don't run empty and the rider saves a few pounds on the fare. While an interesting idea, the website doesn't seem to be not working right now.

[Source: Auto Plus]

Allied Vehicles has announced they will debut their electric E7 taxi at the upcoming British International Motor Show (BIMS). The company has been building taxis for some time now and are already quite familiar with the Peugeot E7 platform. They also build wheelchair accessible vehicles and have incorporated this ability into their taxi as well. It will join other electric vehicles in the increasingly crowded "Electric Vehicle Village" at BIMS and stay on display for the length of the show.

Currently there is some kind of red-tape technicality with Transport for London's taxi licensing division, the Public Carriage Office, keeping it from the capitol-city streets. However, it should be available for other municipalities by October of this year. The lithium-ion batteries are being supplied by Axeon and should give the cab a 100 mile range and a 60 mph top speed. That's a little faster top end than the TX4E hack that is planned for the UK for 2009. The price tag should read £39,450 ($78,759.51). Considering it comes with a 2-year unlimited mileage warranty on the base vehicle from Peugeot and a 6-year warranty on the battery, comparatively negligible fuel costs and wheelchair accessibility, we think this is one amazing deal.

[Source: The Auto Channel]

EcoCity Vehicles has announced that it has signed an exclusive contract with Mercedes Benz to launch a new Mercedes "London cab" through its KPM-UK Taxis subsidiary. The cab offers low-CO₂ emissions, can seat 6, is ready to accept wheelchairs and - thanks to its rear wheel transmission - can comply with London's famous statutory 25-foot turning circle. The cab is based on the Mercedes Vito Traveliner (pictured above). The new vehicle is aimed at London's approximately 25,000 licensed taxi drivers and will be introduced June 26th.

[Source: Autoindustry]

Photo by Mister-E. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

What's worse, suffering under $4 gallons of gas or having to buy a new, more efficient (but also very expensive) vehicle? For the drivers of the 6,700 taxis in Chicago, this question is being forced upon them by the City government. Two Aldermen are trying to pass a rule that will mandate that all of the city's taxicabs go green (in this case, this means a "gas-electric hybrid or powered by innovative fuels, including compressed natural gas, biodiesel, propane and hydrogen," according to CBS2 Chicago) soon. Since cabs in the city need to be replaced every four years, and the proposed rules would mandate that each new cab meet those green parameters, the Windy City's entire fleet would be cleaned up by 2014 if the rule kicks in next year as hoped. Currently, there are only 50 hybrid taxis in Chicago.

This all sounds good, but cabbies are pretty peeved. They just raised prices by $1 a ride to try and recover some of the increased fuel prices, but they're still not making money like they used to. Their biggest complain is that the hybrid premium is just too much to ask drivers and companies to swallow (although their claim that hybrids can cost $10,000 more than the standard vehicle they're replacing is a bit of a scare tactic).

[Source: CBS2 Chicago]

Although there are some concerns about the range of an electric taxi for a city like London, Smith Electric Vehicles wants to prove that it can be made. Smith has announced, via its newsletter, an agreement with LTI Vehicles, the manufacturers of the iconic British taxis, to build a battery powered, zero emission urban taxi cab. Under the agreement, LTI and Smith will produce an all-electric version of LTI's TX4 black cab, branded the TX4E. First tests show that the vehicle can get up to 50mph and has a "range in excess of 100 miles on one battery charge."

According to Smith, the TX4E will contain all the conventional features of the TX4, but will be powered by Smith's advanced electric drive train and a lithium-ion iron phosphate battery pack. It will be manufactured in the UK for the domestic market (so no chance to buy it abroad) and sold through LTI's distribution network. Smith says that, based on current electricity prices, the vehicle will cost less than 4p per mile to run - which is far better than the diesel versions. The last time I checked diesel in the UK it was more than a pound per liter, and the TX4 needs about 10-12 liters/100 km (20-ish mpg U. S.) to run in urban traffic.

[Source: Smith Electic Vehicles]

Madrid, Spain, is currently a very polluted city where 1.8 million vehicles are responsible for 75 percent of the pollutants in the air. Madrid's City Hall has decided that it will switch all its vehicles over to "clean" fuels, that is, they will be all running on electricity, natural gas, biodiesel or ethanol. The city also announced that it will join the BEST (BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport) European project to promote the use of ethanol in cars. Madrid has also worked out agreements with groups like taxi organizations that get up to a 75 percent discount on the road tax, depending on fuel.

[Source: Ayuntamiento de Madrid via Agroinformación]