Yesterday at lunchtime and then later in the afternoon sitting in the lobby of the Baiziwan Home Inn I saw a Chery hybrid taxi. I’ve never seen any Chery being used as a taxi before, nor have I seen a hybrid taxi before, but there it was, one of Chery’s larger cars, I’m not sure which model exactly, but about the same size as an Elantra or Jetta, all done up in Beijing taxi colours, doing taxi-like stuff, with the words… umm, can’t remember what it said exactly, but on the rear passenger door were words to the effect of “hybrid taxi” in both English and Chinese.
I know, hybrids are far from perfect. They do still burn petrol- or some kind of hydrocarbon, at least- and their battery packs need to be disposed of, but if they really do cut down on the amount of fuel burnt then we should get more of them on the roads. Now just think how much better Beijing’s air would be if all the taxis were hybrids…..
