RTA Approves Deal to Acquire 554 Hybrid Vehicles

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has approved a contract for the purchase of 554 environment-friendly hybrid vehicles that will have a combination of internal combustion engines as well as electric motors. The purchase was finalized as part of a grand masterplan to reduce the level of vehicle emissions in the city and to deploy more environment friendly vehicles on Dubai roads.

Commenting on the decision, Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General of the RTA, said the step was taken as part of his organization’s efforts to implement the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to adopt power-efficient solutions which would have a positive impact on people and all kinds of development projects. The objective is to make the environment in Dubai safe, clean, attractive and sustainable so that it contributes to the city’s overall image and profile of Dubai.

The decision also highlights RTA’s commitment to the Master Plan in Dubai that calls to cut carbon emissions from the taxi sector by two per cent, as required by the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and the Green Economy initiative.

Currently, hybrid vehicles constitute about 11 per cent of the fleet of the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) and by the end of 2017, the plan is to raise the percentage of hybrid vehicles in its taxi fleet which currently has 503 vehicles to 17 per cent of the total fleet.

Al Tayer added that the RTA was the first government entity in the region to introduce the operation of hybrid taxicabs having electric engines on an experimental basis as part of the Dubai taxi fleet from 2008 to 2011. The study revealed that these hybrid vehicles had covered 550,000 kilometres without reporting any faults or need for major maintenance. The fuel efficiency increased to 30 per cent while carbon emissions dropped by 30 per cent.

The RTA had earlier endorsed a plan for converting 50 per cent of Dubai taxi cabs into hybrid vehicles by 2021, with the number of hybrid vehicles in Dubai slated to increase from 147 in 2015 to 791 in 2016, and then to 1,582 vehicles by 2017.By 2018, this number is expected to rise to 2,375 taxis, then to 3,167 vehicles by 2019, 3,959 vehicles by 2020, and this growth is expected to continue till it reaches 4,750 vehicles by 2021.

The DTC is set to have the largest share of hybrid taxis in Dubai, totalling 2,280 vehicles, followed by CARS (900 vehicles), National Taxi (812 vehicles), Arabia Taxi (463 vehicles), Metro Taxi (377 vehicles), and City Taxi (18 vehicles).