Hamburg goes electric: Only electric taxis from 2025 onwards

As the first city in Germany, Hamburg is using the opportunity created with the latest amendment of the Passenger Transport Act to link the licensing of taxis with zero-emission drives. The Senate has passed a climate protection law that stipulates that from 2025 only "locally emission-free" taxis and rental cars may be approved. This wording ensures that vehicles that refuel with hydrogen and generate electricity for their electric motor via a fuel cell are also permitted. The Ministry for Transport and Mobility Transition informed industry representatives about this regulation on February 15, 2023, during a meeting held at the Chamber of Commerce. The consultation process to gather the opinion of the taxi industry on this regulation is expected to start soon.

The Ministry announced that "later this spring" another funding program amounting to one million euros will be launched. This will support an additional 360 electric taxis and 5 further electrically powered inclusion taxis. The ramp-up of electromobility will also be supported by setting up 40 new e-taxi stands, each with two fast-charging points, which are reserved exclusively for taxis. Thomas Lohse, Chairman of the Hansa Funktaxi eG, announced at the event that a special phone number for ordering electric taxis would be made public soon.

"We firmly believe that the future of our industry is electric and that this transition date is feasible," Lohse stated. "The industry now has two years' time and planning security for this."

As Dirk Ritter, head of the department for traffic industry supervision at the Ministry for Mobility and Transport Transition, explained to taxi heute upon request, all already licensed vehicles can continue to operate. The only plan is to no longer approve new combustion engine taxis starting from 2025. The existing fleet will not be affected.