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282 Toyota Prius v wagons held TLC licenses on October 12, 2026: 260 for-hire vehicles (FHVs) and 22 yellow taxis. Every one decodes as a hybrid. The Prius v is the wagon-bodied member of the Prius family, and it is the oldest of the 60 most common TLC models: its median model year is 2014.
It also has an unusual job mix. More than a third of TLC Prius v cars work from livery bases, far more than any other model near it.
About these counts
TLC's FHV list and medallion vehicle list contain VINs but no model names. TLC Help decoded them with NHTSA's vPIC decoder, which reports this car as "Prius V", separate from the regular Toyota Prius. The lists are daily snapshots.
A model that stopped in 2017
The newest Prius v on TLC plates is a 2017. The EPA's fuel economy listings show a Prius v for 2017 and none for 2018, so no newer one exists to replace these cars. Model year 2014 is the biggest single year (83 cars), and 2012 and 2013 still have 35 and 36.
For FHVs, age alone does not end a car's license. TLC's current FHV rules set no fixed retirement age, but an FHV must pass inspection three times a year, at least once every four months (rule 59A-26(a), chapter 59). A 10- to 14-year-old hybrid that keeps passing can stay; one that fails must be fixed before it works again. See TLC vehicle inspection.
The 22 Prius v yellow taxis
The 22 taxis are model years 2015, 2016 and 2017, and they make the Prius v the eighth most common taxi model. Yellow taxis follow different age rules than FHVs. A non-accessible taxi has a scheduled retirement date set by TLC's chapter 67, explained in TLC vehicle retirement age. The data can't show when each of these cars was hacked up, so it can't show their dates.
What it can't change is the replacement: TLC's hack-up page says that since October 18, 2024 every hack-up must be a wheelchair accessible vehicle, even on a medallion that is not an accessible medallion, and an accessible hybrid needs an Alt-Fuel restricted medallion. When a Prius v taxi retires, it has to be replaced with an approved accessible vehicle, not another Prius v. See yellow taxi drivers and hack-up step by step.
Hybrid only
The EPA rates the 2014 Prius v at 41 mpg combined (43 city, 39 highway) on regular gas (EPA). That was the rating when new; a car with a decade of city miles may do worse, so ask for inspection and repair records before buying one. Compare running costs with the lease-vs-buy tool.
Black car, livery and taxi
157 (55.7%) are at black car bases, the type used for app trips. 103 (36.5%) are at livery bases; across all 104,845 FHVs only 2,112 (2.0%) are livery. The other 22 are taxis. Five FHVs are marked "PILOT" in TLC's wheelchair_accessible column, a label the dataset does not define; none is marked WAV. For how livery work differs from app work, see livery drivers.
New FHV licenses are only issued for approved accessible vehicles (TLC), so a Prius v can only stay on, or move onto, an existing non-WAV license; see TLC plates for FHVs.
See the Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion and the full ranking in TLC fleet by make and model.
More in the vehicles topic.
Data on this page
Aggregates of public data. They describe trips and vehicles, never individual people.
TLC's vehicle lists have no make/model column, so TLC Help decoded the VIN of every licensed vehicle with NHTSA's vPIC decoder (one representative VIN per manufacturer + model-descriptor + model-year pattern) and published only counts. 5 of 115,081 vehicles (0%) could not be decoded to a model and are left out. vPIC sometimes reports trim-family names (e.g. 'RX' not 'RX 350h'); powertrain comes from vPIC's electrification/fuel fields and may misclassify a few model years. Snapshot lists change daily.
- Toyota Prius V: licensed TLC vehicles by model year — Active FHVs and authorized medallion taxis that are a Toyota Prius V, by model year.NYC Open Data: FHV - Active (8wbx-tsch) and Medallion Vehicles - Authorized (rhe8-mgbb), VINs decoded with NHTSA vPIC · pulled Oct 12, 2026Model year from TLC's vehicle_year / model_year columns. Age limits for TLC vehicles come from TLC rules, not this chart.
- Toyota Prius V in the TLC fleet: hybrid, electric or gas — Licensed Toyota Prius V vehicles by powertrain (from decoded VINs).NYC Open Data: FHV - Active (8wbx-tsch) and Medallion Vehicles - Authorized (rhe8-mgbb), VINs decoded with NHTSA vPIC · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Toyota Prius V: where it is licensed (FHV base type vs medallion taxi) — Licensed Toyota Prius V vehicles by fleet: FHVs by the type of base they are affiliated with, and medallion taxis.NYC Open Data: FHV - Active (8wbx-tsch) and Medallion Vehicles - Authorized (rhe8-mgbb), VINs decoded with NHTSA vPIC · pulled Oct 12, 2026Wheelchair-accessible (FHV list): 0 WAV, 5 PILOT. App-based (high-volume) work generally runs through black car bases.
Frequently asked questions
How many Toyota Prius v wagons are licensed by the TLC?
282 on October 12, 2026: 260 for-hire vehicles and 22 yellow taxis, or 0.25% of TLC vehicles. TLC Help counted them by decoding VINs with NHTSA's vPIC decoder.
How old are TLC Prius v cars?
Old by TLC standards. The model years run from 2012 to 2017 and the median is 2014, the oldest median of the 60 most common TLC models. 249 of 282 (88.3%) are model year 2016 or older.
Why are so many Prius v cars at livery bases?
The data shows that 103 of 282 (36.5%) are at livery bases, compared with about 2% of all FHVs, but it does not show why. The livery drivers page on this site explains how that kind of base works.
Can a Prius v still be hacked up as a yellow taxi?
No. TLC's hack-up page says that since October 18, 2024 every taxi hack-up must be a wheelchair accessible vehicle, and the Prius v is not one. The 22 Prius v taxis already authorized stay under the taxi retirement rules.
Is there a newer Prius v I could buy?
The EPA's fuel economy listings show the Prius v through model year 2017 and none after, which matches the TLC data: no Prius v on TLC plates is newer than 2017.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC Open Data: For Hire Vehicles (FHV) – Active (8wbx-tsch) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC Open Data: Medallion Vehicles – Authorized (rhe8-mgbb) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NHTSA vPIC VIN decoder API vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov
- fueleconomy.gov: 2014 Toyota Prius v fueleconomy.gov
- TLC: Yellow Cab Hack-Up nyc.gov
- TLC Rule Book Chapter 59 (For-Hire Vehicles) nyc.gov
- TLC: Get a For-Hire Vehicle License nyc.gov
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it against the official source.
TLC Help is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission or OATH. Explanations on this site are general information, not legal advice. Legal representation is provided by independent attorneys and OATH-registered representatives in our network.