[Skyhook]

During the recent idling engine protest by Hong Kongs taxi drivers and commercial vehicle operators, I believe there is at the very least, a very logical vehicle alternative for HK's taxi industry.

Toyota's Prius Hybrid car is the perfect car for taxi operators, because when stationary, idling with the air-conditioning running etc , the car doesn't activate the internal combustion engine at all, it will exclusively use DC electric power. only while its moving when load demand requires the ICE to be activated, and even then, it will be an alternating combination of ICE and DC electric power.

A little simulated picture I made up below.

I've noticed that the HKSAR govt has started to replace their previously Mazda 323 Police cars with Toyota Prius, so it makes perfect sense that the Prius is a perfect Taxi vehicle for HK's habit of idling with the air-conditioning on, while waiting for their next fair.

I also believe it would be great for Toyota Japan to start producing LPG Public Light mini Buses incorporating the same Hybrid technology for Asian markets, as it will greatly reduce road side pollution during idling/ heavy traffic situations and especially vehicle noise around residential streets.

What do you think ?

[leghk]

would a cheaper alternative be to add an extra battery to the current taxis? this could power the air-con whilst engine not running and charge when the engine is on.
Not sure of the negative impact on fuel use when the car is moving.

[Skyhook]

There have been quiet a few documented cases in the USA of modified Prius's that are getting better than 100MPG with the addition of another 5kw battery pack, giving the car a 1600km range.

Toyota's Crown Comfort taxi, being a conventional ICE design, requires the air-conditioner compressor to be driven off the crank shaft pulley. Using lead acid batteries @ 50amp/hour capacity you'd need a fair few of them to drive the fan blower, cb radio, car stereo and the separate electric motorto drive the compressor. I doubt there is much practical point of band aiding an already inferior vehicle. The Prius would be better to replace taxis here that are due to be scrapped anyway. IMHO

It would be cheaper for the taxi operator to just replace a due to be scrapped Toyota Crown Comfort Taxi, with the more spacious Toyota Prius. The Prius is also better able to handle abrupt HK Taxi driver, on off, on off throttle technique, as the electric motor is used most of the time, and not affected by drive train back lash etc. Better on a maintenance point of view for the taxi owner.

[PDLM]

I've never tried to sit in a Prius, but from that photo they look far too small for the back seat to be comfortable for gweilo-size adults...

[jgl]

There are a fair number of Priuses (is this the correct plural? Prii?) used as taxis in Vancouver. It'd be nice to see them here too, but I suspect that initial cost would be big problem. It's quite obvious that those POS Toyota Crowns are chosen because they are dirt cheap to buy.

What's with the suspension design in those Crowns anyway- they wallow nothing else.

[KnowItAll]

The battery of the Prius is pretty harmful the environment by itself isnt it?

[Skyhook]

PDLM you will find that the Prius is pretty close to a 1997 Camry interior dimension ( non wide body version), the crown is actually smaller especially in the rear legroom department. Pretty logical considering that the Toyota Crown Comfort is a rear wheel drive small car that has a transmission tunnel that chews rear passenger leg space. The Prius being front wheel drive has considerably more leg room in the back. FACT....

I have actually driven the current generation Prius, and its a lot more spacious than the dunga crown comfort. And far superior in area's of NVH.

I did hear that too JGL, there are apparently 200 Prii that are used as taxi''s by one Canadian taxi operator who has had great success with them.

And by the way, the prius battery is 100% recylable and has a phone number etched into it so it can be refurbished, by Toyota's nominated agent. The internal materials are quiet valuable in the batteries to just be thrown away. So its not harmful lol.

The batteries in the prius since the first model launched in 1997 are still going strong and will last the life of the car, which is typically based on 10 years. So the batteries are lasting longer than Toyotas own specs.

[KnowItAll]

Found the article I'd read a while back.

The Recorder

The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.

[PDLM]

It was headroom rather than legroom that I was worried about... the roof seems to come down quite significantly over the rear seats.

[KnowItAll]

Automotive Energy

The original reports about the long term impact of the Prius.