Photo: Aksyonov Nikita
If we want cars to stop polluting so much, we need to begin at the working end where the most daily miles are put in. No, we're not talking about trucks, though Tesla tried to cover that already. No, a fair chunk of the traffic in all big cities is made up of taxi services.
Change is already happening. Many European cities are covered by fleets of Toyota Prius hybrids, while the Chinese company that owns the London cab brand now makes a plug-in hybrid model with Volvo components.
Yellow cab operators use things like the Honda Odyssey, Chevy Venture or Toyota Sienna, but the Ford Crown Victoria does the bulk of the work in New York. It's very old-fashioned, which could partly be why Lyfts now outnumber them. But Ford has a little gem on its hands, the Mustang Mach-E.
Despite sharing its name with gas-guzzling V8 muscle cars, the Mach-E is a four-door, fully-electric crossover. The technology that makes it go is far more cutting-edge than what Ford put out before, but is this taxi-worthy?
Probably not right now. The body is kind of short for the job. Sure, passengers will fit just fine, but there's no place to add the divider or meter. Still, we want to imagine a world where the Mach-E gets folks where they want to be with zero local emissions. And this rendering by Aksyonov Nikita gets us partway there.
Bright yellow is not a color Ford envisioned for the car, but it works just fine. The trademark black steel wheels are a nod to the Crown Vic' while an available dual-motor system means the Mach-E is less likely to get stuck a blizzard. On the other hand, the cold will mess with the range slightly.
But maybe New York isn't the best place for this. Maybe the Mach-E will take over Paris or Frankfurt instead. We'd love to ride in one of these at the next big motor show.
Yellow cab operators use things like the Honda Odyssey, Chevy Venture or Toyota Sienna, but the Ford Crown Victoria does the bulk of the work in New York. It's very old-fashioned, which could partly be why Lyfts now outnumber them. But Ford has a little gem on its hands, the Mustang Mach-E.
Despite sharing its name with gas-guzzling V8 muscle cars, the Mach-E is a four-door, fully-electric crossover. The technology that makes it go is far more cutting-edge than what Ford put out before, but is this taxi-worthy?
Probably not right now. The body is kind of short for the job. Sure, passengers will fit just fine, but there's no place to add the divider or meter. Still, we want to imagine a world where the Mach-E gets folks where they want to be with zero local emissions. And this rendering by Aksyonov Nikita gets us partway there.
Bright yellow is not a color Ford envisioned for the car, but it works just fine. The trademark black steel wheels are a nod to the Crown Vic' while an available dual-motor system means the Mach-E is less likely to get stuck a blizzard. On the other hand, the cold will mess with the range slightly.
But maybe New York isn't the best place for this. Maybe the Mach-E will take over Paris or Frankfurt instead. We'd love to ride in one of these at the next big motor show.
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