NYC Taxis Can Be Hybrids After All, City Says

Politics in New York City are a tough, bruising game. Pit a billionaire Mayor with a desire to make the city work better and cut carbon emissions against the entrenched interests of taxi owners, and you get an ongoing battle.

On June 20, the Taxi and Limo Commission said taxi medallion owners can choose to buy hybrid cabs instead of the Nissan "Taxi of Tomorrow." It complies with a May court ruling that required taxi operators to be given the option of continuing to use hybrids--as required by its own law.

The administrative decision came in response to a lawsuit by taxi owners slamming the Taxi of Tomorrow because it's not offered as a hybrid...yet. The TLC will let taxi owners continue to use their growing fleets of hybrid taxis until Nissan adds a hybrid option to the extended-wheelbase Taxi of Tomorrow version of its NV200 small commercial van.

In July 2010, a court struck down NYC's ability to mandate minimum gas-mileage levels for medallion cabs, saying only the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can regulate fuel efficiency.

But last year, the Ford Crown Victoria full-size sedan--beloved of taxi owners for its simple mechanical layout, supposed durabilty, and unchanging design--finally went out of production. Now taxi owners want to use production hybrids, rather than the purpose-built Taxi of Tomorrow, because they're cheaper to buy. Not as cheap as the Crown Vic was, sadly for them--but that was then and this is now.

It's not about gas mileage, though. The taxi owners are battling to keep hybrids because they're cheaper to buy than the custom-built Taxi of Tomorrow.

In any event, NYC taxis that are production hybrid models will continue to ply their trade on the city's streets for several years.

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