By Shafaat Shahbandari, Staff Reporter www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Dubai’s taxi fleet just got greener as Cars Taxi has brought in 28 hybrid vehicles to join the 20 cabs launched last year by the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) Dubai Taxi Corporation. The vehicles were launched on Tuesday.
Cars Taxi is the first private taxi franchise to introduce hybrid taxis and is planning to add 22 more by the end of this year.
“We have a fleet of 7,000 taxis across the world, including in the GCC and the Far East as well as India and always to look adopt the kind of technology that not only improves operational efficiency but is also good for the environment. Our plan is to replace all our taxis with eco-friendly vehicles in the next couple of years,” said Abdullah Sultan Al Sabbagh, Executive Director at Cars Taxi Group.
He said 300 hybrid vehicles would join the taxi fleet in Dubai next year, while there are plans to experiment with different technology.
“We are working with Al-Futtaim and Toyota as well as some other manufacturers to view the availability of technologies that will help improve operational efficiency as well as environmental benefits and we are looking at the plug-in electric taxis as well as CNG [compressed natural gas] as an option,” added Al Sabbagh.
He urged the authorities to make CNG more readily available across the country so that the clean fuel can be used in the taxi fleet. More info
