Amsterdam on its way to an emission-free taxi city in 2025!
By 2025, all taxis within the Amsterdam ring road will run on electricity, hydrogen or solar energy. This ambition has been laid down in new agreements between the municipality and the taxi industry. The measure contributes to better air quality and less traffic noise in Amsterdam. Almost the entire taxi industry agrees with this.
Last week, the Municipality of Amsterdam and the representatives of the taxi industry signed a new covenant for emission-free taxi transport in 2025 within the A10 ring road. Making taxi transport more sustainable contributes to better air quality in Amsterdam, reduction of CO2 emissions and reduction of traffic noise.
“Clean air is of great importance to the health of all Amsterdammers and our visitors. We are aware that this change requires a lot from taxi drivers, trade associations, taxi companies and platforms. So I am pleased that the taxi industry has indicated that it wants to contribute to our ambitions.”
A clean taxi is a taxi that runs 100 percent emission-free, and therefore has no emissions at the exhaust. These are hydrogen-powered taxis or electric taxis. In recent years, a large proportion of taxis have already switched to electric driving. In 2016, Amsterdam was the first municipality in the Netherlands to announce that it, together with the local taxi industry, is striving for an emission-free zone for taxis by 2025. With the new Amsterdam covenant, even more parties are joining this, such as Uber and the KNV (Royal Dutch Transport) sector organization. , which represents the self-employed taxi drivers.
criticism
The sector has also criticized the agreements made with taxi organizations and platforms. “They don't own cars and don't have to make this kind of big investment. There is no response to drivers who indicate after 2 years of lockdowns and inflation this idea is not feasible.” The most notable criticism of social media is directed at the KNV trade association. “Never knew that KNV represents the interests of independent taxi drivers, if so, they have delivered an extremely poor performance in recent years.”
subsidy
As an entrepreneur, you can apply for a subsidy for the purchase of a new or used emission-free taxi. The subsidy available for other commercial vehicles has been granted in full and therefore you cannot currently apply for a subsidy for this. You can only receive a subsidy if you have not yet bought the taxi. The municipality gives a subsidy for the purchase of zero-emission taxi vehicles to make that switch easier.
