Six Major U.S. Cities Unite to Push Feds Toward Requiring More Taxis Be Hybrids

Six Major U.S. Cities Unite to Push Feds Toward Requiring More Taxis Be Hybrids

By Scott Doggett July 29, 2010

By Danny King, Contributor

Any self-respecting baseball fan will tell you that folks in New York and Boston don't tend to agree on much, but at least the two cities appear to be on the same side when pushing for more fuel-efficient cabs.

Manhattan and Boston, as well as San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., are reportedly pressuring the federal government to force or at least financially encourage taxicab companies to cut their carbon footprint by buying more hybrid vehicles.

The move comes after a federal court this week rejected New York City's continued attempt to effectively mandate more hybrid cab purchases by adjusting lease rates of both hybrid cabs and traditional Ford Crown Victorias (pictured).

The mayors of the six cities wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urging Congress to help ensure better fuel efficiency among U.S. cabs and limos, and they estimated that 50 million gallons of fuel would be saved each year from more fuel-efficient cabs, The Detroit News reported.

The push comes at a critical juncture as alternative-fueled vehicles gain greater exposure with the U.S. introduction of both the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid and Nissan's battery-electric Leaf later this year while cab operators look for a replacement vehicle for the popular Crown Vic, which Ford is phasing out along with the Lincoln Town Car.

As it is, the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid cabs have gained popularity in cities such as New York and San Francisco, with the Escape Hybrid getting about double the Crown Vic's fuel economy and the Prius getting roughly three times as much.

Hybrids as a percentage of New York City's more than 13,000 cabs have jumped from about 2 percent in 2007 to almost 30 percent today, according to IHS Global Insight analysts.

Meanwhile, San Francisco passed a law in 2008 giving cab companies until 2012 to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels, essentially forcing operators to buy more hybrid and natural-gas vehicles.

As a result, hybrids account for about half of San Francisco's fleet of about 1,400 cabs, with natural-gas powered cars accounting for another 118 cabs, according to San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority spokeswoman Kristen Holland.

Still, other cities have been slow to adopt. Chicago, which has no mandate addressing taxicab fuel economy, has 188 hybrids among its citywide fleet of about 6,800 cabs, or less than 3 percent, according to Efrat Stein, a spokeswoman for Chicago's department of business affairs.

That's likely because operators haven't found a hybrid that provides the combination of size and durability of the Crown Victoria, according to Alfred LaGasse, CEO of the Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association (TLPA), the oldest and largest U.S. trade group for taxicab and limo operators.

"I have member operators who run Priuses and are very happy with them...But I have operators who bought a handful of them and were very unhappy with them," said LaGasse, who added that the Ford Escape Hybrid provides adequate size but its higher ground clearance makes it a challenge for some elderly taxi passengers. "We need a vehicle that meets the majority of our passengers' needs a majority of the time. That's what the Crown Vic is today."

Granted, LaGasse said some cities could effectively sidestep the federal-court decision by forcing their police departments to buy more hybrids and other alternative-fueled vehicles, because many taxi companies simply buy used police cars.

For instance, the New York Police Department said in recent months that it would double the size of its hybrid-electric vehicle fleet this year by ordering about 200 Ford Fusion and Escape Hybrids after some of the latter proved reliable during a trial.

Still, both New York and San Francisco are among cities where cab operators tend to buy their cars new, and as for the federal court decision, LaGasse said he expected it and, unsurprisingly, was in favor of it.

"The federal government reserves the right to set fuel-efficiency standards, and there's good reason for that," he said.

Decision or not, San Francisco's Holland said her city's plans for a predominantly hybrid taxi fleet had little chance of being derailed.

"Our local ordinance is structured differently than the New York one and it has not been challenged," she said.

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.