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Mike @ Mar 19th 2008 4:10PM
Chris,
Ever been in a city taxi? Most city cab drivers are two foot drivers. Hit the gas hard to cut into traffic, jam the brake to avoid hitting the guy in front of you. For those in the back seat, it is a roller coaster ride of pushed back into the seat on accell and flung forward when the brakes are mashed.
If this type of driving is used, hybrids quickly lose their advantage over regular gas engines. Hybrid gas engines turn on with around 25% or higher throttle input and quickly lose mpg. Heavy city traffic like NYC or Chicago are not the best use of a hybrid powertrain with their especially dense, aggressive traffic.
19 mpg under those conditions is a huge improvement over what any other taxi is getting now and there's no additional cost of the hybrid system.