New York City’s Entire Taxi Fleet to be hybrid by 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — The city’s yellow taxi fleet will go entirely hybrid within five years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday.

“There’s an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City,” Bloomberg said. “These cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes.”

“This does a lot less. It’s a lot better for all of us,” he said of the hybrid plan.

Nearly 400 fuel-efficient hybrids have been tested in the city’s taxi fleet over the past 18 months, with models including the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h and the Ford Escape.

Shifting the taxi fleet to hybrids is part of Bloomberg’s wider sustainability plan for the city, which includes a goal of a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

AP