Scotland to Have the First Hybrid Taxi Company

Lining up to the green trends in the automotive market, a new Scottish taxi company opened recently, offering its services through a fleet of six hybrid Toyota Prius, soon after it has been agreed by West Lothian Council that the Toyota Prius can be licensed as a private hire vehicle.

The company, called Calder Cabs, was founded three years ago and it has now become the first hybrid taxi company in Scotland. Calder Cabs collected the six Toyota Prius from Tom Graham, Business Centre Manager at Western Toyota in Sighthill.

“We are pleased to be able to respond positively to calls from the Scottish Government for businesses to look at their carbon footprint and find ways to reduce this,” said Colin Paton and Andrew Liddle, Directors of Calder Cabs, in a statement for the press.

From all the hybrid cars out there, the owners of Calder Cabs stopped at the Prius because it is it has a 1.5-liter petrol engine combined with an electric motor, which means it can offer CO2 emissions of just 104 g/km and combined fuel economy of 65.7 mpg. Running solely on electric power when in traffic, it has the advantage to bring the fuel consumption and emissions levels close to nil.

“We have spent a lot of time researching hybrid vehicles and come to the conclusion that the Toyota Prius is the perfect choice for our business, as well as our corporate customers whose businesses require them to reduce their carbon footprint,” Paton added.

The 2006 version of the Prius comes with a high-end liquid crystal display available as standard, while the optional features include more airbags and a rear-view camera for extra safety and blind-spot assist. Moreover, a model introduced in 2007 has side-curtain airbags as standard.