The Daily Green releases its Top 10 list of the most efficient vehicles. So how did your vehicle rate? Hint: Toyota had four of the top 10.
NEW YORK (AP) - Three major auto manufacturers are promising to reserve 300 new hybrid vehicles each month exclusively for the city as it replaces its entire fleet of yellow cabs.
Nissan North America, General Motors and the Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that they are setting aside the environmentally friendly cars to help the city reach its goal of making all yellow cabs green by 2012. Today there are about 13,000 cabs on the street and more than 1,300 are hybrids.
New city regulations require that any new cab coming into service after Oct. 1, 2008, achieve a fuel efficiency standard of 25 miles per gallon. The following year, that increases to 30 miles per gallon.
The standard yellow cab in use today, the Ford Crown Victoria, gets about 14 miles per gallon. But some hybrid models, which run on a combination of gasoline and electricity, achieve as much as 36.
The government does not own the city’s yellow cabs, but sells licenses to drivers and operators, who must purchase vehicles that meet the specifications of the Taxi and Limousine Commission. The agency regulates and licenses all for-hire vehicles in the city.
Some taxi fleet owners had recently complained to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration that there would not be enough hybrids available on the market for all drivers to meet the city’s fuel efficiency regulations by the deadline.
Bloomberg said the help from the auto companies guarantees that won’t be a problem.
“We want to ensure there is more than enough supply to meet the demand for hybrid taxis,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
At least one fleet owner said Wednesday that there was not enough research yet about how safely hybrids can perform as taxi cabs, which can clock tens of thousands of miles each year and are on the road for longer lengths of time than regular cars.
Ron Sherman, of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, said the city “is asking taxi passengers and taxi drivers to become human crash test dummies.”
Bloomberg, when asked about the safety issue at a news conference later Wednesday, said every study the city has examined says hybrids are safe for use as cabs. He suggested that dirty exhaust from standard cabs poses more of a safety hazard.
“Maybe that’s not what you should be worrying about - try the air that you’re breathing when they go by,” he said.
Both the city and taxi driver advocacy groups acknowledge that drivers or fleet owners will have to spend more money up front when purchasing hybrid vehicles, but point out that they will save money on fuel. The Taxi and Limousine Commission estimates that a hybrid cab saves a driver $6,500 per year.
The life of a city taxi is typically about three to five years because the commission requires all vehicles to be retired within a certain time frame.
Yahoo has a comprehensive list of cars that are good for the environment. Check them out here.
DURHAM, N.C. — The Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA) will debut a new Hybrid bus today.
DATA will purchase 20 Gillig hybrid buses in fiscal year 2008-2009, stated a press release from the city of Durham.
The new hybrid fleet will help DATA save money on fuel consumption by up to 40 percent as well as reduce emissions and improve air quality.
Story by: The Associated Press
LONDON — Paul McCartney’s luxury hybrid must have seemed like a good idea to the environmental advocate.
But he’s getting slammed by trackers of environmental footprints for his delivery option.
McCartney’s $158,000 Lexus was flown from Japan to England, instead of being shipped by boat.
A leading environmentalist says the cargo flight is the same as driving the car around the world 300 times, and that the hybrid technology may not be the best use for a high-performance car.
Lexus gave McCartney the car. It sponsored McCartney’s 2005 tour of the United States.
A spokesman for McCartney says the car has been delivered. It’s unclear if McCartney knew the delivery method.
The North Carolina Departmentof Environament and Natural Resources released 16 tips to conserve energy on North 
Carolina highways.
To read all 16 tips, click here.
ExpressJet Airlines is just one of many other airline carriers to make changes on their planes in order to be more eco-friendly.
Some changes are minor, like changing cups on board from glass to plastic, or asking travelers to pack lightly to lighten the aircraft load.
But at ExpressJet, they decided to reduce ground emissions. “Simply by eliminating the daily commute, a home-based workforce can dramatically reduce emission,” said Ron Schultz in an ExpressJet press release.
More than 200 ticket agents are working from their home, lowering emissions by more than 1.8 million pounds a year, according to the release. To read more about the changes ExpressJet and other airlines are making, click here.
We see those big brown trucks driving along our roads and highways delivering packages to customers daily, but now those brown trucks will be green. Sort of.
UPS announced it deployed 167 Compressed Natural Gas delivery trucks. According to the UPS website, the trucks are expected to reduce emissions by 20 percent and improve fuel economy by 10 percent.
Read more about these “green” trucks by clicking here.
Inhabitat.com has an interesting story on Volkswagen’s strategy for green-ing their line of automobiles.
“Some car manufacturers, like Toyota and their uber-trendy Prius, are cranking out new models that represent the hybrid car of the future. Others, like Volkswagen, are working with what they’ve got, making their existing cars cleaner and greener. — Inhabitat.com“
Prius killer? Inhabitat.com is reporting the new Golf will get 82 mpg vs. the Prius’ 55 mpg.