Electric Taxis Cannot Hack It On City Streets

[skylight]

Electric Taxis Cannot Hack It On City Streets


Hopes of battery-powered taxis in New York were zapped after an electric cab couldn't hack the average taxi shift during a pilot program earlier this year.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission announced Thursday that the lithium battery-powered PT Cruiser cab also couldn't withstand cold temperatures. The commission was testing whether the environmentally-friendly car could tough it out during the average, strenuous 10-hour New York cab shift.

The cab tested is different than the hybrid electric/gas vehicles that are already on city streets.

"It got to spend a lot of time on the back of a flatbed tow truck and not a lot of time as a taxicab," said commission spokesman Allan Fromberg.

Now it's back to the drawing board, but the commission has not given up and will keep on looking for an electric car that works. The little cab that couldn't hit the streets early this year, but usually stopped working after driving 40 miles, Fromberg said.

Once it made it more than 90 miles, but never the average cab shift of 100. The manufacturer, Hybrid Technologies, took the car back about a month ago, Fromberg said.

The company could not be reached Thursday. The commission and Mayor Michael Bloomberg committed to make taxis more environmentally sound earlier this year when they announced that the entire yellow cab fleet will go hybrid by 2012.

The commission Thursday also revealed a green-apple sticker that will mark the growing hybrid fleet that has now hit 461 out of more than 13,000 yellow cabs in service. A sticker for wheelchair-accessible cabs will also hit the streets soon.


Source: Electric taxis can't hack it on city streets - AM New York

[Hooligan]

The article really NEVER said why the PT didn't make it. Was it because of battery usage, or a mechanical reason.

Inquiring minds want to know!!!!!

[skylight]

yeah... they didnt reveal too much.
according to the article comments, if they use the right battery technology, it could most likely work.

[fritz_t_coyote]

I am guessing that the people behind this have not driven in NYC.
Or rode in an NYC Taxi.

Because NYC traffic miles are like 'dog years'

None of that gentle acceleration to cruising speed followed by a gradual slowdown to the red light 1/2 a mile ahead (which is what regenerative brakes live for).

But a constant full throttle, hard braking cycle.
( hmmm.... like a road-race )
On broken pavement (ok, like an off-road race)
Surrounded by maniac drivers who are perfectly willing to trade paint with you, because their paint is the same color. (sorta like an off-road demo derby).
For an 8-hour shift (an Endurance-Off-Road-Demo-Derby).

And trying this with a PROTOTYPE? As in taped together wiring harness connecting unproven components?

And best of all... on a UNIBODY Chassis. I don't care how many Robot Welders and Engineered Adhesives you use, NYC streets will beat it to death. Once it starts flexing metal fatigue will eventually win. Of course once the body is flexing enough, you can always use a bit of Morgan dogma: Don't think of it as chassis flex, think of it as extra suspension travel.

On the other hand: They can take the poor broken thing back to the lab and figure out what went wrong. Maybe version 2.0 (or 3.0) will be more effective.

If they really want something that can 'hack' it as an NYC taxi:
Start with a vehicle with a stout steel frame and heavy duty suspension, like a JEEP.