NYC: 100% Hybrid Yellow Cabs in 5 Years

Mayor Micheal Bloomberg is about to announce that every Taxi in New York City will be a hybrid in a mere five years.

Holy Moly. I guess these are the kinds of things you have to do quickly if you want your city to produce 30% less carbon in a mere 30 years. Bloombergs plan will see a 20% increase in hybrid taxis every year for the next five years.

The current standard taxi, the Crown Victoria, gets about 14 mpg in the city. It’ll be replaced by a wide variety of new taxis, from the smaller Prius, to the Ford Escape hybrid SUV. 13,000 Taxis is a lot to replace, but apparantly a 20% per year churn is about what taxi companies deal with in New York, so, basically, every new cab they buy will have to be a hybrid.

Looks like those yellow cabs might have to have a splash of green after all.

Via Metaefficient and WNBC