Three major auto manufacturers are promising to reserve 300 new hybrid vehicles each month exclusively for New York City, the Associated Press is reporting, as the city replaces its entire fleet of yellow taxi cabs. The three companies—Nissan, GM, and Ford—all said they're setting aside hybrids to help the city reach its target of "making all yellow cabs green" by 2012; that would encompass about 13,000 cabs on the street.

About 10% of the fleet, or 1,300 cars, are currently hybrids. Those kinds of vehicles are widely considered ideal for the job of a NYC taxi, which spends plenty of time idling in traffic and driving at low speed—exactly the kind of driving that hybrids excel at.

The report said that new city regulations require that any new cab coming into service after Oct. 1, 2008, achieve 25 mpg on average; that increases to 30 mpg one year later. Not a bad improvement over the 14 mpg, ubiquitous Ford Crown Vic—a car I'll admittedly always have a soft spot for, having grown up and rode around in them for so many years in NYC. They're like big, comfy, padded living rooms with a steering wheel attached to one wall. Time to move on.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)