Seein as my family is 100% Greek, we watch Greek television including news. Last night they had a 10 minute segment on the first hybrid taxi in Athens. My dad called me down to check it out, and he asked what it was. Turns out it was a Prius. Painted yellow with blue stripes on the side just like every other taxi. I think its cool to be promoting hybrids in Europe. In Greece, the Prius' 110 hp is on the mid-high end power-wise and its mileage is on par with other smaller cars, although much better than the old Mercedes they use as taxi's currently.
In Slovenia, one Taxi company called "Rumeni Taxi" - "Yellow Taxi" would be English translation, uses Prii in its fleet since 2004. Rumeni Taxi They are also one of the winners of European Green Fleet Awards. GreenFleet - European GreenFleet® Awards - winners announced
In New York we're getting the Ford Transit Connect. A 4-cylinder van that gets 19mpg city. Its mileage is on par with other smaller SUVs...I think its cool promoting vans/small SUVs to save gas in America We'll catch onto using the Prius as a cab in, say...10 years!
We (The United States and Canada) are already using Prii as cabs! New York City: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/images/photos/full_toyota_prius.jpg http://www.1000www.autoblog.com/2007/05/22/bloomberg-all-nyc-taxis-to-be-hybrid-by-2012/ Baltimore, Maryland: http://llnw.image.cbslocal.com/33/2008/04/18/320x240/checker.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia: http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/05/priustaxi.jpg Chicago, Illinois: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2337/2498481746_538d18999f.jpg?v=0 Spokane, Washington: http://metrospokane.typepad.com/index/images/2007/09/18/tc_taxiprius.jpg San Antonio, Texas: http://www.evworld.com/press/yellowcab_prius.jpg Arlington, Virginia: http://www.priusownersgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/envirocab.jpg Seattle, Washington: http://www.discovery.org/blogs/discoveryblog/STITA-TAXI.jpg Boulder, Colorado: http://media.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/content/img/photos/2008/03/14/436204021_t220.jpg Corpus Christi, Texas: http://media.caller.com/ccct/content/img/photos/2008/04/08/20080408-041740-pic-111264086_t180.jpg
I live in Athens and I am a proud Prius owner There were legal issues with importing and using Prius for Taxi services: the law required a 1.6 lt engine as a minimum requirement for Taxis - so Prius and Civic Hybrid could not be used for this service.... The law changed recently (allowing smaller engines only for hybrids) and now there are many Prius and Civic hybrids cruising the city. The taxi derivers mention a 40 - 60 Euro per day savings on fuel bills - each taxi runs 600km/day on average. The market is shared equally between Honda and Toyota, even though Civic is cheaper than Prius.
