The Taxi and Limousine Commission said additional electric Uber and Lyft cars are “not needed at this time,” in New York City following a run on the cars last year that added more than 7,500 EVs to the city’s rideshare fleet.
The news was quietly announced in the TLC’s annual report on the state of the city’s for-hire vehicle industry, published late Friday.
“Based on [the TLC’s] analysis, the pending litigation concerning TLC’s decision to issue EV-restricted licenses under the previous License Review, and the need to evaluate the impact of new licenses before determining whether any additional licenses should be made available,” the report continues, “TLC finds that additional for-hire vehicle licenses are not needed at this time.”
Last fall’s run on the coveted TLC license plates, which are required to accept app-based hails, came after the New York Taxi Worker’s Alliance sued to stop the Adams administration from modifying the 2018-era cap on for-hire vehicles to allow an unlimited number of Ubers and Lyfts, so long as they were electric. The plan was part of the Mayor’s so-called Green Rides initiative, meant to make the entire fleet electric by 2030.
The Taxi Workers Alliance argued that the TLC didn’t have the legal authority to unilaterally change the license plate cap rules, and that a slew of new vehicles with TLC plates would saturate the market, hurting existing ride-share and yellow taxicab drivers.
In response, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Machelle Sweeting in November ordered a temporary stop to the new licenses. At the time, Sweeting granted a five-day grace period for those who may have already purchased an electric car. By its end, 9,756 applications had been filed to the TLC.
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