The first electric taxis were introduced in the Big Apple in 1897, and within a few years, 9 out of 10 taxis were operating on battery power. The technology was not quite ready for widespread deployment and operation, however, and two events led to a resurgence in the use of horse-drawn carriages and internal-combustion engine (ICE) powered taxis became the standard: a major fire in 1907 that destroyed part of the fleet of the New York-based Electric Carriage and Wagon Company and the Panic of 1907, a three-week-long financial crisis, when the New York Stock Exchange suddenly fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year.
Currently, there are approximately 1,024 electric yellow cabs in the city, representing about 7% of the total New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission medallions – a figure that hovers around 13,942. Various sources show that there were approximately 800 electric yellow cabs before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, or around 6.5% of the total. That’s far from the percentage of electric taxis the industry had 125 years ago, which was 90% of the total.
Source: ChargedEVs
