Taxi cabs represent only a small portion of the cars on city
streets. But they’re on the road for long periods of time. As Brad Linder
reports, that’s why some cities are looking at battery powered cabs as
a way to reduce vehicle emissions:
Transcript
Taxi cabs represent only a small portion of the cars on city
streets. But they’re on the road for long periods of time. As Brad Linder
reports, that’s why some cities are looking at battery powered cabs as
a way to reduce vehicle emissions:
The typical New York taxi cab is on the streets for 10 hours at a time.
Earlier this year, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission wanted to
see if an electric vehicle could make it through an entire shift. But
the test cab from manufacturer Hybrid Technologies rarely made it
through half a shift before running out of juice.
Commission spokesman Allan Fromberg says that’s just not good enough:
“It was unfortunately not possible to do that. When
you’re getting 40 miles and you know, the average shift would probably
take a taxi cab about a hundred miles.”
Fromberg says there are more than 13,000 gasoline and hybrid electric
cabs in New York right now. He says the city would be interested in
approving a 100% battery-powered cab as long as it can
survive a regular taxi shift.
For the Environment Report, I’m Brad Linder.