Hybridní taxíky se osvědčily, tvrdí Slovinci
Fleet Characteristics
Rumeni Taxi is a private company, which operates 5 passenger cars; 3 of them are hybrid propelled. All vehicles are mostly used in urban area and are making up to 100.000 km yearly.
Based on their 1,5 years and 360.000 km experience, they can say that hybrid propelled cars are performing very well. The acceleration of vehicles is equal compared to conventionally propelled vehicles (the hybrid propelled vehicles have only 1500 cm3 engine, but the acceleration is the same as in diesel vehicles with 1900 cm3 engines). They noticed no differences in lifespan, oil changes (oil change after 15.000 km), filter changes (filter change after 30.000 km) or average time of mechanic service.
The total operating costs of hybrid vehicles are lower, although the costs of purchase are much higher compared to diesel cars. There are huge differences regarding the purchase taxes. Hybrid propelled vehicles are tax free and the cost of insurance is 30 percent lower. Consequently total costs per vehicle (evaluated cost per 10.000) are lower.
They have good experiences with hybrid propulsion that is why they are planning new purchases of alternative propulsion cars.
Other
Maintainance of brakes is much cheaper, because usually we have to change the brake plates every 15.000 km, with hybrid propelled vehicles the brake plates have to be changed only after 120.000 km.
Company
Rumeni Taxi is taxi company in Ljubljana, that was founded in 2002 by Vlasta Hojan. At the begining they were only using conventionally propelled vehicles. In 2004 they bought Toyota Prius with Hybrid Synergy Drive.
ZDROJ:www.eltis.org