[jyl]

Flew into SFO tonight. If you go to San Francisco much, you'll have noticed all the taxis are hybrids or CNG vehicles. That is due to city regulation. So, if you want to know about the long-term reliability of hybrids and CNG vehicles, there aren't many better sources of first-hand information than San Francisco cabdrivers.

In the Prius (2010 gen 3) taxi to the city, I had a nice chat with the driver about Prius taxicabs.

This particular Prius had 311,000 miles. On the original traction battery. It was still running fine, not using oil, getting the same gas mileage as when new (according to the driver). The car was comfortable, about as quiet as a gen 3 Prius normally is, no evident squeaks or rattles, interior was holding up except for a loose armrest passenger rear (as observed by me).

This, according to the driver, is the typical experience they have with the Prius taxis, gen 2 and gen 3. Yellow Taxi's Priuses rack up miles at appx 12,000 miles per month. At 315,000 miles, San Francisco taxis must be retired, by city regulation. The Priuses are then sold as taxis to companies in other towns, or exported to Mexico, they fetch about $4-5K. The Priuses are retired because they hit this 315,000 mile mark, absent the city regulation they would keep going. Almost none experience battery failure (he couldn't think of any, actually).

He did say that the Prius gen 3 doesn't get 50 mpg in San Francisco taxicab duty. They get about 45 mpg overall. He said that is because the city is so hilly, which makes sense to me. The average cab driver is kind of a leadfoot, too (my observation).

Our 2006 gen 2 Prius has 89,000 miles. It seems likely that we'll be driving it for many years, possibly even decades, more. Or until we get the hankering for a new car. Unless there is something about private car usage that is more demanding that tax cab usage?

I also got a little information about their CNG cars. Apparently the newer ones have partly solved the range problems. Used to be that after two roundtrips from SFO to the city, the driver would have to refuel, and with only about 4 or 5 CNG refueling stations in the area, that was a big problem. The new CNG cars have bigger tanks with a 200 mile range, which has made them "less unpopular" with the drivers. For the most part, the CNG taxis are larger vehicles (vans, SUVs) that the cab company converts to CNG.

With the larger hybrids available now (Camry Hybrid, Prius V, etc), it will be interesting to see if the cab companies continue to convert vehicles to CNG.