PRESS

Taxi medallions for 'green' vehicles receive record bids
June, 2006 | By Samantha Gross - Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- The number of "green" taxis in the city will increase more than tenfold to 281, more than in any other U.S. city, after the city's first major auction Thursday for permits to operate hybrid electric cabs, taxi officials said.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission, which tightly regulates the number of taxis prowling New York streets, wasn't sure whether cabbies would embrace the new technology, so it opened the bidding at discounted prices as an incentive.

Those fears proved meritless. When the sealed bids were opened Thursday, some buyers had offered record prices. One paid $554,147, the highest sum ever spent for the privilege of operating a hybrid or natural-gas cab.

Green taxis will still represent a tiny fraction of the more than 13,000 yellow cabs in the city's fleet, but the success of the sale may indicate a bright future for the technology, said Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus.

"There's pent up demand out there and it's a top item," he said. "We're hoping that green is a contagious color."

Hybrid taxis can get double the gas mileage of traditional cabs and generate far less pollution. The agency has approved nine different hybrid models for use as taxis, from the tiny Toyota Prius to the luxe Lexus RX 400h.

The 254 medallions sold Thursday will be the only ones that are limited to hybrids and vehicles powered by compressed natural gas. But Daus said the agency will encourage owners replacing their vehicles to choose hybrids.

Some drivers had worried that the vehicles would offer too little leg room, and none include a security barrier between drivers and passengers that is standard on other cabs. But with rising gas prices, hybrids have a potential financial edge over the most commonly used city cab, the Crown Victoria.

Daus said the hybrids must still show they can stand up to the rigorous workout they receive as taxis.

"They aren't necessarily built to be on the road 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Daus said.

A small number of hybrids were introduced into the fleet on a trial basis in November, and owners were offered a financial incentive to use the vehicles. Twenty-seven were on the road before the latest medallion sale.

In the 1990s, the TLC persuaded a peak of 180 cabbies to use cars running on compressed natural gas, but the technology failed to catch on. Ford recently announced it would stop making a compressed natural gas version of the Crown Victoria.

Hybrids could also become obsolete, though that won't change the agency's promotion of the technology, said Daus.

"The immediate future is hybrids," he said.