California Center for Sustainable Energy

New rebates for ground transportation providers

A familiar scene at San Diego International Airport, taxis and shuttles lined up for passengers, will be getting a makeover as CCSE rolls out a vehicle rebate program to support the adoption of cleaner transportation. Starting this month, San Diego is joining the small number of U.S. cities that have made a commitment to alternative fuel airport ground transportation by providing owners and drivers discounts on new, greener vehicles and saving them thousands of dollars a year in fuel costs.

The San Diego Airport Vehicle Rebate Program ( AVRP) is part of other statewide efforts to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the use of hybrid, compressed natural gas and propane vehicles. The program provides cash incentives to help offset the cost of purchasing or leasing lower emission or alternative fuel taxis, limousines and door-to-door shuttles that are permitted for the airport. Currently, there are about 1,450 vehicles with permits.

CCSE will implement the rebate program in coordination with the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, the San Diego Association of Governments and San Diego Miramar College’s Advanced Transportation Technology & Energy Center. Funding comes from a $750,000 grant from the Reformulated Gasoline Settlement Fund that was created as a result of an antitrust class action against Union Oil Company of California.

Rebates are dependent on vehicle type, model year and fuel technology and range from $1,000 to $7,500. The program also provides free technical training about vehicle options for transportation providers and is supporting local initiatives to buildup fueling stations and other infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles.

“The purpose of the program is to get existing gas vehicles off the road and to replace them with cleaner, fuel-efficient ones that cost less to operate and reduce the emissions produced,” said Heather Shepard, CCSE’s AVRP program manager. “It’s typical for a taxi or shuttle to travel more than 50,000 miles a year, and with the most popular taxi models now getting only about 16 miles per gallon and shuttles even less, the fuel costs really soar at $4 per gallon.”

CCSE hosted two meetings in May, one for taxi and sedan owners and the other for shuttle owners, to introduce the new program. At both, representatives of several manufacturers were present along with their vehicles, as well as reps from alternative fuel conversion companies and local clean fuel suppliers.

At the meetings, Shepard give a detailed overview of the AVRP and clean taxis programs in other cities, highlighted by an analysis of purchase, fuel and maintenance costs of various alternative fuel vehicles compared to the two predominate taxis and livery vehicles, the Ford Crown Victoria and the Lincoln Town Car. Over a seven-year period, the two standard cars come in at about $140,000 each, whereas a Ford Escape Hybrid will cost around $95,000 and the larger Toyota Highlander Hybrid about $113,000. The Toyota Prius at $72,000 and the Nissan Altima Hybrid at $83,000 offer even greater savings.

Paul Gillespie, a veteran cabbie and former president of the San Francisco Taxi Commission spoke at one meeting about his experiences with setting up the nation’s first hybrid taxi program in 2003. Today, there are more than 1,000 hybrids taxis in San Francisco, and Gillespie said since they have been in operation, there have been no significant battery failures. Analysis of the first 15 Ford Escape Hybrids showed that when they reached the 300,000-mile mark, the city’s official taxi retirement age, they had saved drivers about $9,000 a year, depending on gas prices and number of shifts driven.

Other U.S. cities that have established clean taxi programs include Boston, San Antonio, New York City and Chicago, where a $1 million program began in April with rebates of up $2,000 for hybrids and $14,000 for compressed natural gas and propane vehicles.

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