Brave New Eco-World

New York City is preparing to launch its Taxi of Tomorrow, introducing six fully electric taxis into the vast fleet of the city's famed yellow taxis. There will be time-out in the city's taxi drivers' angst not to miss any potential fares as they line up to plug their vehicles in to electrical outlets to recharge their batteries. But they will be visible, those taxis, and much admired, and the city congratulated on its forward-looking environmental green prospect.

Problems? Perhaps. "It's to figure out how a taxi driver can integrate 60 - 90-minutes of charging into a day. Frankly, just as important, it's to show other taxi drivers that it can be done", explained David Yassky, New York's taxi commissioner. "Looking ahead to the taxi of the day after tomorrow", proudly proclaimed Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The vehicles of choice will be coloured silver and yellow. They will be Nissan Leafs. And the drivers of the pilot project are all volunteers. There will be privileges awarded them; they will have the right to refuse passengers whose destinations do not appeal because of requiring a charge in the middle of a destination. "They're pioneers. We want to give them the leeway", said Mr. Yassky.

Doubts? "You can't go charge in the middle of your shift", observed Fahd Khan. He would agree to driving an electric vehicle, only if the daily rental rate for his taxi is reduced in compensation. To make up for the time spent charging the electric battery. Those charging stations are being installed on the Lower East Side, the Far West Side and close to Union Square.

That's aside from homes with charging stations, so that can be done between shifts. Don't they think of everything! Well, almost everything. Bjorn Lomborg, that environmental skeptic, reminds us that sales of electric cars have tanked. In Germany, for example, where car sales totaled 3.2 million in 2011, a mere 2,154 electric vehicles were sold, in a country whose chancellor boasted it would have a million electric cars on the autobahn by 2020.

The U.S. Department of Energy expects about 250,000 electric cars on the road by 2015, representing about 0.1% of all cars on the country's highways. According to an analysis conducted by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, an electric car's lifetime cost is about $12,000 higher than its gas-powered counterpart. Costs and subsidies apart, electric cars have proven inconvenient.

A BBC reporter drove the 484 miles from London to Edinburgh in an electric Mini, stopping eight times to recharge. Counting in wait times, he spent 80 hours waiting or driving, averaging just about six miles an hour on his otherwise-ordinary trip.

The manufacturing process producing those electric cars, and more so their batteries, is produced with the use of fossil fuels. The Nissan Leaf, Mr. Lomborg points out can go 73 miles on a single charge. Which explains why most people purchase an electric car as a second family vehicle, to be used for short commutes.

An electric car's C02 emissions are 28% less than a gasoline-powered vehicle. During the lifetime of the electric car this will bypass 11 tons of Co2 emissions. Consider China, where most energy is produced by burning coal. An electric car powered with the electricity earned from coal firing will emit 21% more C02 than a gasoline-powered car.

Well, it's early days yet. For the time being, we just cannot win for losing. But human ingenuity and universal environmental need will surely surface some really workable solutions. We hope.

We surely do hope that to be the case.