NYC stalls in the fight for hybrid Ubers
Uber promised this month that all London UberXs will be hybrid or electric by 2020, but the company is making no such vow for its 46,000 cars in New York City.
In fact, the company doesn’t disclose how many of its New York cars are hybrid, even though the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which regulates the industry, publishes similar information on taxis.
And if Uber, which didn’t respond for comment, did try to enforce a London-style rule here, many drivers would push back.
“Gas is cheap enough,” said Moe Duke, an Uber driver since 2013. Leasing a hybrid car “is a little bit more expensive.” He drives a Lexus ES350, which does come in a hybrid version, but when he took it for a test drive, he noticed it had less power.
While in 2015, almost 10,000 of New York’s 13,500 yellow taxis were hybrid, this was mostly by industry choice. In fact, the TLC only requires that 300 yellow taxis be hybrid vehicles and, according to TLC Deputy Commissioner Allan Fromberg, “there are no other requirements in place.” Fromberg cited a 2011 lawsuit that ruled that New York City could not create its own taxi fuel efficiency rules, as that remained a federal power.
“The end goal is… to have all vehicles off gas and diesel fuel”
However, for-hire-vehicles in New York City must still undergo safety licensing. Because of this, many Uber drivers to choose to lease already-licensed vehicles from companies such as Tower Auto Mall in Queens. Online Sales Manager Brandon Wall said that of Tower Auto Mall’s 3,000 cars “maybe 100 are hybrid… They’re not very popular.”
Although Wall said the company, which is one of Uber’s four leasing partners in the city, “discuss type of vehicles” with Uber, they get no pressure to provide more hybrid cars.
The issue is hybrids’ cost, Wall said. Tower Auto Mall is advertising a 2011 Toyota Camry for the purchase price of $5,900, $1,000 less than its hybrid equivalent. Although the hybrid boasts nine more miles per gallon, at current Manhattan gas prices, it would take over 22,000 miles to earn back the initial extra investment. That’s the equivalent of driving from New York to Boston 100 times.
London’s 40,000 Uber drivers are facing these costs. The company is offering drivers $6,800 in grants to upgrade their vehicles. London customers will fund these grants through a 50-cent surcharge on trips, and Uber is contributing $2.7 million.
Uber’s decision to invest in hybrid vehicles comes after growing public pressure over London’s air pollution, blamed for 9,500 deaths each year. And the changes don’t stop with Uber. From 2018, all new London black cabs will need to be hybrid or electric.
“I care about mileage, but I care about the price more.”
In New York, city data shows that between 2009 and 2011, an average 2,300 deaths a year were caused by poor air quality.
Some are pushing New York to take London’s lead. “The end goal is… to have all vehicles off gas and diesel fuel”, Air & Energy Director of Environmental Advocates of New York (EANY), Conor Bambrick, said. EANY, the statewide affiliate of the National Wildlife Foundation, is campaigning for a law to eliminate all fossil fuel usage in New York by 2050.
But for Uber driver, Ibrahim Honday, the choice is simple: “I care about mileage, but I care about the price more.”
