New York City’s iconic taxi fleet once included several streetcars, but you’d have to look back more than a century to find them.
EQUAL National Geographic explained in a recent article, electric taxis were briefly popular in the city in the 1890s. The fleet quickly grew from a dozen in 1897 to more than 100 in 1899. It was a important reminder that battery-powered cars are not a new invention. Technology has changed dramatically, but many of the features that make electric vehicles so appealing have remained consistent throughout.
According to National Geographic, a 19th-century vehicle called the Electrobat was considered ideal for taxi services because of its ability to accelerate quickly and make no noise. The electric motor’s instant torque and lack of exhaust noise have also created many modern electric vehicle enthusiasts.
2013 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle tested as a taxi in New York City, April 2013
However, electric taxis are also responsible for two unfortunate firsts in history. In May 1899, taxi driver Jason German reportedly became the first motorist to be arrested for speeding after reaching speeds of 12 mph on Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue.
That same year, another taxi driver hit someone in what is believed to be the first pedestrian fatality involving a car. Concerns that pedestrians might not be able to hear quiet streetcars resurfaced in the 2010s, leading to regulations requiring Audible warning for pedestrians on both electric and hybrid vehicles.
The electric taxis of New York in the 1890s were products of the early period of automobile experimentation, when electric power competed with both the internal combustion and steam engines. Both steam and electric cars were relatively common until gasoline cars and their fueling infrastructure became reliable enough to take the clear lead in convenience.
First Nissan NV200 in New York
When electric vehicles re-emerged as a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine in the 2010s, New York City thought about bringing them back. The City Council begins electric taxi push around 2012, but concerns about charging prompted officials consider hybrids instead. The ill-fated “Taxi of Tomorrow” project, which sought to make the Nissan NV200 van the default taxi in New York, was also in the works at this time but there was no discussion of hybrid or all-electric versions. Taxi electricity.
Nissan never achieved a taxi monopoly in New York with the NV200. The fleet currently includes many hybrids as well as some electric vehicles, although the latter may be less attractive to taxi operators due to the proposed electric vehicle exemption from the city’s new policy. Congestion pricing seems to have failed.
It’s also unclear how much progress New York is making under the current administration of Mayor Eric Adams toward the goal set by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in his executive order to produce all public transportation vehicles. urban pine of NYC in 2040.
