 |  Forget the Checker Cab: The Big Apple's new trademark taxi is a hybrid.
Credit: Ford Motor Company |
The streets of New York City will soon feature many more hybrid vehicles, as the city's buses and taxis shift to the fuel-saving technology. On Monday, Orion Bus announced that the city has ordered 850 diesel-electric hybrid transit buses for use by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Bus Company and MTA New York City Transit. When delivered to the city in early 2010, the buses will make the MTA's diesel-electric hybrid bus fleet the largest in the world, with nearly 1,700 hybrid buses. The buses will be powered by a hybrid drive system developed by BAE Systems and incorporating lithium-ion batteries, achieving a fuel economy improvement of as much as 30% relative to standard diesel buses. The buses will also produce only 10% of the particulate emissions and 60% of the nitrous oxide emissions produced by conventional diesel buses. See the press release from Daimler Buses North America, which owns the Orion Bus brand. In addition, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) voted last week for new regulations that require all new taxicabs in the city to achieve 25 miles per gallon (mpg), starting on October 1st, 2008. The TLC requirements increase to 30 mpg a year later, and exempt accessible taxicabs. The new regulations effectively require a shift to hybrid taxis in the city and are expected to result in an all-hybrid taxi fleet by 2012. The regulations follow a goal set by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in May 2007. At that time, the city had only 375 hybrid vehicles in its fleet of 13,000 taxicabs, but since then the number of hybrid taxis has nearly doubled to 627, which is more than any other U.S. city. See the TLC press release (PDF 46 KB) and the article from this newsletter on Mayor Bloomberg's May announcement. Download Adobe Reader.