If you’re going to San Francisco…

Even though NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered a city-wide switchover to hybrid cabs by 2012, there’s still a fair bit of local resistance to the idea. Some of it has to do with availability – hybrid vehicles are in demand and fleet owners are feeling a bit left behind – but the overriding concern is durability, specifically battery life.

They’ll be happy to know, then, that hybrid cabs in San Francisco “had passed 300,000 miles of use with no problems.” Not only that, but the cabs’ regenerative braking system extends brake life by three orders of magnitude. In California, “hybrid batteries are warranted for 10 years or 150,000 miles, which is presumed to be the life of the vehicle,” and San Francisco Taxicab Commission president Paul Gillespie says that of his 182 hybrid battery packs, only two have been replaced since hybrid cabs were introduced to San Francisco, and one was due to driver error. He also brought up the fuel savings that had won over skeptical drivers – the city estimated a $9,000/year drop in transportation costs since introducing hybrid cabs.

Not that traffic or road conditions are the same in San Fran as they are in New York, but cab drivers keep a pretty grueling schedule in most major cities, and so far the hybrids are performing exceptionally. Besides, we’ve never actually seen traffic move in New York, so it’s safe to say that they’re overreacting just a little bit.