Posted on 11/11/2005 5:56:34 PM PST by kingattax
NEW YORK (AP) - Hybrid taxis that get double the gas mileage of traditional cabs while generating far less pollution have begun rolling in small numbers on New York's streets.
Delighted environmentalists, city officials and the chairman of Ford Motor Co. (F) posed with the owner of the first hybrid cabs atop a Manhattan auto showroom Thursday to belatedly celebrate last week's quiet debut of the vehicles.
For now, there are only six of the bright yellow Ford Escapes in the city's fleet of more than 12,000 taxis, but owner Gene Freidman said he planned to have 18 on the street by Thanksgiving.
City Councilman David Yassky, who pushed for the legislation authorizing the use of the vehicles as cabs, predicted that thousands more will follow.
"I'm determined that in five years, every cab on the streets of New York will be a hybrid," Yassky said.
The small SUVs run on a combination of gas and electricity and generally emit no exhaust when they are moving slower than 25 mph. They drive the same as regular cabs and never have to be recharged, but passengers will notice some differences.
The Escape has less leg room and a narrower back seat bench than the big Ford Crown Victorias that make up the bulk of the city's fleet. There also wasn't enough room to include a security barrier between the front and back seats.
Drivers, however, might be willing to risk lessened security in exchange for gasoline savings that could amount to thousands of dollars a year.
Cabbie Gennadiy Abramov, who was on hand for Thursday's rollout, said he has saved an average of $20 per shift since he started driving a hybrid.
Abramov said he hasn't heard any complaints about the smaller space.
"The customers want all taxis to be hybrids," he said.
Whether the vehicles proliferate, however, may depend most on whether owners of the city's cab fleets find a long-run financial benefit to justify their extra cost.
Freidman, who operates a fleet of about 650 cabs, said he got interested only after the city offered a chance to buy new taxi medallions for alternative-fuel vehicles at a deep discount.
He and two business partners purchased 18 of the licenses at a savings of about $170,000 each - more than enough to offset the extra $5,000 to $6,000 cost of buying a hybrid.
New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission later had second thoughts about the deal and tried to call it off. A court battle ensued. The City Council intervened and passed a law this summer that essentially ordered the commission to approve the use of hybrids as cabs.
Future hybrid purchasers won't get a similar incentive, but Freidman said he thought owners would buy them anyway.
"It's a no-brainer. The drivers love them," he said. "I didn't start out green, but I'm green now."
Ford Escape Hybrid taxi cabs are seen during a press conference introducing fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles to the New York City taxi industry, Thursday, November 10, 2005. Environmentally healthy gas-electric hybrid cars will help to reduce smog and cut fuel costs. (AP Photo/Adam Rountree)
A wave of the future for cabbies in all the big cities. You'd think the vehicle companies would be trying to develop a version for busses - another natural with all the stop and go driving they do. (Maybe they already have something, but I haven't heard of it.)
This is good. From what I have seen most of the fares in NY are also hybrids.
LOL
Double the miles for the cost of fuel, huh? Hooray! The price of taxis to passengers in nyc is coming down!
Right???
Yeah, what does it matter if you get shanked and robbed if you're saving thousands of dollars a year?
Quite the sweetheart deal ... as long as the hybrid doesn't use MORE fuel (which it won't of course), he saved himself over $3 million bucks.
Yeah this car is insane, you culdn`t pay me enough to get into one of those. I drove a NYC cab for about a year a few years ago in between jobs and anyone who drives one without a partition is insane.
Just as an example, I had one guy I picked up one morning (about 4am) who once he got in I knew something was wrong..I just had a feeling, you just get this vibe...I asked him where he wanted to go and he said "Fordham"..so I said Fordham what? Fordham ave Bronx? and he didn`t answer me.
I just knew what was coming next and sure enough as soon as I hit a stop light he said "hey" and I turn around and I`m facing a bag. The guy had a bag over his fist pointing right at my head and before I even blinked BAM I slammed the partion closed, put the car in park and ran the hell out of there to a bus across the street yelling at the bus driver to call the cops. The guy then jumped out of my cab and ran down the street.
If I didn`t have a partition or that partition was opened a little bit more than it was, god knows what the hell he could have done to me. For these idiots to put out cabs without partitions is idiocy at it`s height. They`re doing nothing more than gambling with the lives of drivers.
The SUV cabs suck. The have ZERO legroom. Gimme me my Cown Vic back or better yet, the minivan taxis.
You mean halfbrids don't you?
A partition is only good to prevent a yoking or a blunt weapon attack. The back of your seat isn't bullet proof. OR do your partitions go all the way to the floor now?
Buses are diesel. This tech would not work with them.
The tech that seems to work for buses is natural gas. ortland Maine is converting it fleet over the next two years to CNG.
Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com
You get a medalion to put on the trunk of the car. They limit the number of cabs so the market dictates the value to be $350K.
Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com
Why not make a hybrid crown vic? The Escape hybrid doesn't get much better mileage than a regular sedan. A hybrid sedan would have much passenger room, and better mileage.
He'll get to buy $3,000 batteries instead.
You can buy a lot of batteries for 18 cars, when you are saving $3 Million up front. Just the interest alone, on $3 Mil per year at 4% = $120,000 (if my math is correct).
The city charges the taxi company or the private owner, for a special medallion that looks sort of like an oversized police badge.
If you have the medallion on your car, it is legal to operate as a taxi cab. No medallion = not a licensed taxi.
Due to NYC having a population of about 8 million and only about 12,000 taxis, city council has found out that they can charge about $350K per new medallion issued. This guy saved $180K per car, for 18 cars.
And they will be wrong. Cab drivers have the worst death rate of almost all jobs in US, mostly from murder. No friggin way would I drive a cab in NYC with no security gate. Who are these people kidding?
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