Hybrid Taxis Would Slash Smog, Save Billions In Fuel
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 02.25.07
Cleantech Venture Network recently announced it is working to convert taxis to hybrids, in a move that it says could save $50 billion in fuel costs over a decade and slash smog in cities. North America has 196,000 taxis, which drive an average of 10 times more than regular passenger cars. “They are the largest contributors to smog in our cities,” said Jim Harris, a managing partner for the Cleantech Innovation Institute. Switching cabs to hybrids will save cab drivers an average of $1,200 to $1,500 per month on fuel, he said. See also: Hybrid Taxis in New York. :: Red Herring via The Energy Blog
That would be simply AWESOME! I am not a city dweller, but even Nashville has a number of taxi services, aside from the larger cities like NYC and Tokyo that really depend upon them. If there were a place that one could donate money to the making of these cleaner, greener taxi cabs, I would definitely drop some cash in!
Since taxis do mainly city driving and idling wouldn't the benefits of the battery be drained relatively quickly during a day? I guess these new taxis wouldn't use any juice idling, but the stop and go of NYC and other huge cities on top of all the miles they run would drain the power pretty quickly forcing it to switch to ICE. Definitely better than existing ICE only taxis
Hybrids, especially "full" hybrids do better in city driving than highway (though they do well there too), so that's perfect for taxis.
Ford just needs to make a hybrid Crown Victoria! Plenty of cabbies swear by the Crown Vic, especially for its cavernous interior and trunk.
"Since taxis do mainly city driving and idling wouldn't the benefits of the battery be drained relatively quickly during a day?"
You might read up on how hybrids work.
Generally hybrids charge their batteries by braking, thus making them perfect for stop and go driving. The electric aspect of a hybrid exists to convert braking power to energy, storing it and using it when re-accellerating instead of just wasting it as heat.
Most hybrids also have circuitry to shut the engine off during stops and deceleration--idling wouldn't be a problem, becuase hybrids shut off instead of idling.
Normal cars have lower gas mileage in cities due to lost energy braking, idling, and accelerating. A hybrid gets better gas mileage in the city than on an open stretch of road. It would be very impractical to turn a conventional ICE off at a traffic light or traffic jam. With a battery and an electric motor it becomes much more practical.
Hybrids charge their own batteries both through regnerative braking and via the regular engine...
Most taxis aren't bought new--they're surplus police cruisers or other vehicles sold at auction. We're not seeing more of them because the hybrids that are out there have been holding their value too well and are in too high demand to end up on an auction block for cheap. If there were some kind of tax incentive it might help. However, with higher fuel prices, the shift is already taking place. NYC has a high proportion of hybrid cabs (mostly Toyota Highlanders and Ford Escapes), and I swear the air is cleaner for it.
i'm from vancouver and there are tons of hybrid cabs out there. interestingly the cabbies only want the prius and from talking to a few of the drtivers they say that they save 'bout 12 grand a year on fuel alone. for the majority of cabbies it isn't an environmental issue, more of an economic one. but considering that most of the vancouver cabbies are punjabi this conversion is nothing new to them. A few years back New Delhi forced all rickshaw drivers to convert to natural gas as to improve air quality.