Timişoara City Hall wants electric taxis

The Timişoara City Hall will propose that the local councilors adopt a decision through which taxi companies could benefit from a range of financial benefits if they replace their current cars, petrol or diesel, with electric cars, considered to be environmentally friendly.

The facilities offered by the municipality include exemption from local tax and parking fee (Telpark) and free operating licenses for taxi drivers.

In addition, deputy Adrian Orza has announced that soon a charging station for electric cars in Timişoara will be built.

But the idea does not seem to have success among taxi drivers in Timişoara, who complain that the investment in an electric car is too big, and incentives provided by the town hall are much less attractive.

For example, according to specialised auto websites, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric model costs about 36 000 euros, a price considered prohibitive for most Romanians.

In addition to this, drivers say that electric cars have limited range and the duration of the power supply is very high, about 7-8 hours.

The Taxi drivers in Timişoara believe that there should be a national programme providing important facilities for drivers who buy green cars, like in some European countries.

Given these conditions, it remains to be seen what other solutions the local authorities will find to reduce pollution in Timişoara, a city that risks being fined by the European Commission because of exceeding the limits of particulate matter.

According to environmental inspectors, not only the heavy traffic but also the building sites that do not meet environmental standards cause dust. This year Timişoara has exceeded three times the limits imposed by the EU.

And that while Timişoara is the city with the largest green space per capita in Romania.

Since the environmental fines imposed by the Environmental Guard and the sanitation measures taken by the city hall are not sufficient, the citizens have come with a number of ideas on the fight against dust during a recent public hearing.

Thus, besides the idea of using of electric cars, already taken into account by the city hall, it was suggested creating green gardens, suspended on several buildings and using environmentally friendly boats for public transport on the Bega channel.

Translated by: Denisse-Meda Bucura
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University