Lots of Prius Taxis in Barcelona--seems like about 1 in every ten I saw was a Prius, and I was in pretty taxi-heavy areas for about 3 days. I haven't seen any other city with so many. Mostly Gen IIIs by now, I think, but there were some I thought were Gen IIs. This one posed for me:
Prius are very popular among European taxi companies. For enstence, there are more than 1000 Prius taxis in Paris and very recently the biggest french taxi company (G7) just bought 800 Prius+ for its fleet.
yeah they are showing up more and more in big cities in the US also... i started to notice them a lot in San diego when i lived there and now i see them in SLC. Im traveling to Anaheim, CA in a week or so... im interested as to if there will be any at the OC airport... i wont be taking one as i am going with my VP so I'm sure we will have a executive taxi. Never the less, it cool that they are serving their purpose 10 fold.
Phoenix taxi companies have embraced Prius too. We hardly ever see those old guzzling Crown Vic cabs anymore.
Do you think there is any way they would share their repair records for their Prius fleets with the rest of us? i would really like to have a worst-case-scenario timeline for expected repairs for my Gen 3 based on a decent sample size.
I was in Seattle a few weeks ago and rode a Prius taxi from the airport. At first I thought there was a rule requiring taxis to be hybrids because they were all I saw for awhile. Later, I saw other "normal" taxis too, but quite a few Prius taxis there.
Portugal was very few Prii taxis. Major players Mercedes C, some with 15+ years. Smoke all along. Fleet companies may add fuel costs to its accountancy, as long as it's diesel.
I guess it shows which areas take consideration of residents health and safety. A 15 year old car, even a Mercedes, doesn't reflect positively on the area. I know this is sad but I always judge a hotel or company on the quality of their toilets and judge the quality of a town or country on their taxis. A 15 year old Mercedes says a lot - none of it positive I'm afraid.
Odd rules like that favor diesel fuel and diesel automobiles in several European countries I think. Fairly sure diesel is taxed less in Germany than gasoline and that appeared to be true elsewhere on the Continent. Problem with that type of favoritism is that the government may in the long run back the "wrong horse" and exacerbate the problem. In this case the old, dirty diesel cabs are kept running long past when they should have been retired, in my opinion. Wish we had systematic records from the Prius taxi fleets because if there are weaknesses in them I surely would appreciate knowing that in advance.
I rode in several Prius taxi's on a recent trip to San Francisco, and the drivers said it costs more to lease a Prius vs a non hybrid, but the savings in gas and added attraction to eco/green customers in San Fran made it worth it. The driver said he paid the taxi company $115/day for a Prius in SF vs 85 for non hybrid.
Really interesting. That's a large differential--surely there can't be 7 gallons difference in the amount of gas you use per day between a Prius and another taxi? So the preference of customers might account for a large part of what makes the difference worth it. For those PC members who drive cabs: how much difference does it make in an average day's driving?
