The Greening of the Yellow Fleet

Owners of hybrid cars from Boston to San Francisco like to boast about how their vehicles not only save them money at the gas pump, but help the environment, too.

Add to that list some of the toughest drivers around: New York City cabbies.

By 2012, all of New York’s approximately 13,000 taxis will have to get at least 30 miles a gallon on the city’s streets. Because hybrids are about the only vehicles able to meet that target, most of the gas-only cabs in the city’s fleet are expected to disappear during the next five years.

There are 1,020 hybrid taxis roaming New York’s streets, about 7.8 percent of the fleet. Of those hybrids, 83 percent are Ford Escapes; the others include Toyota Highlanders and Priuses, Nissan Altimas and Lexus RX 400hs.

The Toyota Prius may be one of the most popular hybrids, but there are just 18 in the city’s taxi fleet. Toyota said that the Prius taxis were holding up well, but that the company did not help to convert cars into taxis because they were not intended to be driven so heavily.

“Our engineers are nervous about it because they were not designed for commercial use,” said Wade Hoyt, a Toyota spokesman, who added that the company sold 270,000 hybrids last year. “Drivers are so enthusiastic about them and they are all very popular, so we don’t have to do anything to promote them.”

Some drivers of hybrid taxis interviewed recently said they were mostly pleased with their cars, particularly with how much money they saved on fuel. But they added that hybrids cost more to repair and that some of them had less space for drivers and passengers, at least compared with the roomier Ford Crown Victoria, the city’s ubiquitous cab for many years.

For the last six months, Zulfiqar Aslam has driven a Ford Escape and spends about $10 a day on gas, $25 less than when he drove a Crown Victoria. He said he worked seven days a week.