Car company may join green taxi trend
A new fleet of electric hybrid taxis will hit Beijing roads next year, one of a number of transportation plans to reduce pollution in the capital.
An environmentally-friendly taxi is being manufactured by the Beijing Hyundai Motor Co and will be introduced sometime next year pending government approval from transportation as well as environmental protection authorities.
If approved, the green taxi fleet will follow the government's introduction of 860 hybrid-powered buses later this year. Authorities are also planning to begin a test of 50 electric buses. Fifty hybrid buses, powered by fuel and batteries, underwent a test-run beginning June 20.
The Hyundai taxi has a hybrid engine that uses gasoline as its main power and also runs on electric power, which will work for the vehicle at idle or initial speed. Hyundai is not the first to introduce a hybrid taxi. Chery Auto rolled out a small fleet of 50 hybrid electric taxis last year.
Beijing Hyundai said this green technology reduces fuel consumption for taxi drivers by 10 percent and puts out less carbon emissions into the capital than regular gas-run vehicles.
Li Feng, deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, said the company was in talks with authorities over its approval. An official from the company in the public relations department declined to approximate how many taxis would be introduced. A name for the hybrid model has yet to be released.
Cabdrivers said they would support the new hybrid taxi but were reluctant to pay higher lease fee for the cars.
"I paid 20,000 yuan for renting a Hyundai Elantra on a five-year contract, and I am afraid the new car will cost more," said 38-year-old taxi driver Liu Shengyi yesterday.
Hyundai admitted the car's cost will rise but declined to give a price.
"But its energy-saving trait can cut the cost in the meantime, " Li said. "What's more, it protects the environment."
Forty-year-old taxi driver Su Jing -long said he would swap his existing Volkswagen Jetta for the greener car if the price was reasonable.
Su said he paid an average 130 yuan per day for fuel, and if the new car saves 10 percent in fuel costs, he would probably save about 4,700 yuan per year.
Li Xin, chief engineer at Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said if the car uses less fuel, there will be less exhaust emissions into the city's atmosphere.
Authorities have already tried to ease persistent traffic jams and reduce emissions when it introduced a traffic restriction system during the Olympics.
(China Daily 10/20/2009 page25)
