New York City’s first motorized taxis were electric vehicles.

Electrobat electric car

At the turn of the 20th century, gas engines hadn’t become the standard yet; electric, gas, and steam-powered vehicles each held around one-third of the U.S. automobile market. Electric vehicles stood out from the pack because they didn’t produce unpleasant pollution (sound familiar?) and because they were much quieter than their gas or steam counterparts. The big disadvantage was that they didn’t have great range, something that drivers still worry about today.

One of the very first electric cars in America was the Electrobat, a heavy, utilitarian carriage powered by an adapted ship’s motor and built specifically for rough city roads. It had to safely lug around a 1,600-pound lead-acid battery, but it was the ideal vehicle to make short trips throughout the city. It became the basis for the first cab company in New York City, the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company, founded in 1896. The founders also came up with a clever way of working around the battery problem: a battery-swapping station made from an old skating rink on Broadway.

The Electric Carriage and Wagon Company reported 1,000 trips in April 1897, its first month of service, and the electric cab system was a success in New York. But public opinion — and the service itself — soured once it tried to expand to other markets. The new facilities were poorly managed, with undertrained drivers and badly maintained batteries. The taxi company, later called the Electric Vehicle Company, shut down in 1907, and electric cabs didn’t return to the Big Apple until 2022.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

New York City regulates taxi colors.

Metered cabs used to be all sorts of colors, including in New York City. In the early 20th century, operators would paint their whole fleet a signature color to make their cabs stand out. One company, the Yellow Taxicab Company, even got litigious, filing around 50 lawsuits against other operators to stop them from using its signature color. There were red, brown, and black cabs, but yellow ultimately won out as the dominant cab color in New York City. NYC implemented a medallion system in 1937 — still in use today — that limits the number of taxicabs that can operate in the city. The system only restricts cars that can be hailed, though; cars that arrange rides in advance are called “livery cabs.” In 1968, the city implemented a law to help riders tell the difference between the two: Taxicabs had to be yellow, and all other cabs had to be a different color. The livery cab drivers weren’t happy, and even set some yellow cabs on fire for operating in Brooklyn, which, along with the other boroughs, was considered livery territory at the time. The law is still in place today.