http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/22/news/hybri...ey_email_alerts The ubiquitous New York City yellow cab is going green.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to announce Tuesday that he will order the city's entire taxi fleet be converted to gas-electric hybrids by 2012, sources close to the mayor told CNN. According to the sources, Bloomberg will instruct Matthew Daus, the commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, to begin a cycle of replacement that will see 20 percent replaced each year until all of the city's approximately 13,000 taxis are hybrids in 2012.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 22 2007, 09:58 AM) [snapback]447309[/snapback]</div> That would sure be nice, although I haven't seen one hybrid cab here yet. I did, however, see a hybrid bus on the Chicago Ave route not too long ago.
What I think is funny is that knowing how much the average New York cabble likes jack rabbit starts and hard breaking, I think they are going to get horrible fuel economy. At least after this the cabbies might have a little bit more respect for my Prius and cut me off less.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Trevor @ May 22 2007, 08:29 AM) [snapback]447330[/snapback]</div> Even without changing driving style, they're going to get much improved mileage over what they have now. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but I thought that I heard on the radio this a.m. that they're replacing Crown Victorias. Dave M.
In that picture, it shows an escape? The hybrid version of that gets about 3mpg better than the standard model? Seems almost pointless... the gains are so minimal. Go from Crown Vic's to something that's getting 50+mpg, or all electric in the city. Change how NYC does it. Send busses or trains to JFK rather than taxis' and the higher end black livery guys and get all those cars off the expressway. In Manhattan, go full electric... even if the car has to go back in the bay for recharge every 4 hours while the driver swaps out another... or they run back to the depot and do a battery exchange every 4 hours (plug -n- play) by the battery guy while the cabbie stays in the seat. Put the depleated battery on the rack for charging. We'll see what this means, but doesn't seem 'revolutionary' at all.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ May 22 2007, 10:55 AM) [snapback]447350[/snapback]</div> Uh, I don't see how an electric or plug in play system would be very feasible in NYC. It would be a very big mess considering that a single trip to JFK from Manhattan and back can exceed 4 hours. And the space in Manhattan is too limited to build a bunch of taxi battery bays. I think this is a very important step. And concerning the use of SUV hybrids, I still see it as a good step to fight air pollution. The traffic in NYC is very much accelerate/brake wait, accelerate/brake wait repeat, so yeah, they aren't going to get 35 mpg in their SUV hybrids, but they wouldn't get 32 in the nonhybrids either. They would probably get 25 in their hybrid. and 10 in thier nonhybrid, and the more idleing, the better the ratio gets. I hope they lean more heavily on the sedans for the fleet mostly because having SUVs everwhere will limit the sightlines of the sedans, and secondarily because the sedans have better pollution controls than the SUVs. The air in NYC will probably get quite a bit better. Maybe in 10 more years, there will be a long life quick charge battery car that NYC taxis will switch to.
Quick google and math: 2WD Hybrid Escape 33.5 MPG combined 2WD gas-only 4-cyl 24.5 MPG combined 2WD Hybrid does 9 MPG better combined ********************************************************* 4WD Hybrid Escape 30.5 MPG combined 4WD gas-only 4-cyl 24.5 MPG combined 4WD Hybrid does 6 MPG better combined These are 2007 numbers. Are the 2008 numbers closer when comparing Hybrid versus gas-only? Is my math off? sorry I don't have my google searches linked here. Anyway, the Hybrid would nonetheless be a lower-emission choice. Something that gets overlooked since it doesn't equate to immediate dollars, but can't be ignored either. Just harder to quantify for "strictly" cost analysis. I would think even a 3 MPG increase would add up over thousands of vehicles and hundreds of thousands of miles. Again, the crud NOT coming out the tailpipe would certainly be less using a hybrid.
I think that it's more than just the straight-shot MPG. A large part of the equation should take into consideration idle time. How often does a NY cabbie sit in traffic, wait for riders, etc? With at the very least engine-stop technology, their overall mileage will increase in addition to lower emissions.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 22 2007, 01:54 PM) [snapback]447494[/snapback]</div> However the vehicles mentioned (on the ABC news story today) are "Mild Hybrids", in which the engines keep running all the time, they are not full hybrids like the Prius in which the engine stops when not needed. But, I'd like to give NYC the benefit of the doubt... in 5 years there may be more full hybrids. We all know there are some Prius taxis in use around the world, they probably have the same interior space as some of the small, low mpg SUVs showed on the news stories.
Didn't the mayoral summit on global warming just take place in NYC? And isn't New York one of the cities participating in the pact? Even a mild hybrid is better than none. But I think some Highlanders, Prii and Fords in the fleet will improve things. And 100% replacement by 2012 is a great goal.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(finman @ May 22 2007, 03:10 PM) [snapback]447454[/snapback]</div> also remember that the hybrid escape has better acceleration than the gas-only 4-banger. The same cabbie who likes jackrabbit starts might have bought the V6 escape, which gets 22 combined
