As much as I am supportive of hybrids, there is another serious issue in using (at least the current generation Prius) for taxi and public safety applications.

The generation and conversion of 40-60KW of electric power on-board (The Prius power system uses 240 VDC which is processed through an inverter to 440V 3-phase AC for the traction motor) generates MASSIVE amounts of broadband white noise that blankets the radio spectrum from about 2 MHz to well over 250 MHz.

This doesn't impact the reception of AM and FM broadcast stations with transmit powers typically of thousands of watts. However it seriously degrades the reception in land-mobile two-way radios in this vehicle. (The typical two-way base station transmits typically only a few tens of watts, or at most a few hundred watts, toward the mobile receiver.)

I have personally observed the usable range for two-way radio systems installed in the Prius to be one-half or less of the typical due to desensitizing of the receiver by this on-board noise. (I am a land-mobile radio systems engineer.)

Two-way dispatch radio is critical to fleet operations such as taxis, public safety and delivery fleets. This electrical noise issue must be addressed before hybrids are going to be accepted by fleet operations.

Note: The noise in question drops off at higher frequencies and affects primarily the 30-50MHz ""Low-Band" VHF, 150-170 "High Band" VHF and 220 MHz. There is no noticeable problem at 450-510 MHz "UHF" or in the 800/900 MHz bands used by trunking radio systems and cell phones.

It was the inability to hear weak signals for radio coverage tests and measurments in my Prius that made me replace it with a Jetta TDI turbo-diesel. The diesel is exceptionally quiet electrically, especially since the diesel doesn't have sparkplugs that have traditionally be a source of noise in gasoline engines.