Colombia’s taxi market is going through a turning point. New taxi registrations fell to 4,693 units in 2025, an 11% drop compared with 2024 and the lowest level in at least 14 years, even as the wider vehicle market expanded. That urban transition places Colombia in line with a global pattern where digital platforms reshape how people move in cities, and therefore, those mobility apps affect taxi sales.
Worldwide, mobility apps have changed expectations about price, waiting times, and service quality. In Colombia, the shift is visible in the numbers: While the automotive sector closed 2025 with 254,205 new vehicles and growth close to 26.5%, the taxi segment was the only one in decline. The contrast suggests structural change, not just a weak year.
In 2012, Colombia registered more than 16,000 new taxis, a figure that symbolized the strength of the yellow cab as an urban icon. There were strong corrections later, especially during the pandemic, when the market fell to 3,298 units in 2020 and 4,552 in 2021. Even so, the 4,693 taxis of 2025 keep the segment near the bottom of its recent range, despite a broader recovery.
Those figures show how local practices sustain an urban transition in which Colombians mix taxis, private cars, and motorcycles requested by app according to daily needs. The traditional model, based on medallions, street hails, and radio dispatchers, now competes with algorithms, dynamic pricing, and route tracking that many users already consider standard.
Apps expand in Colombia while taxis have adjust
Industry voices point first to the rise of mobility apps. Platforms such as Uber, DiDi, inDrive, and Cabify have added drivers and routes at high speed, offering immediate booking, digital payment, and ratings.
According to Alianza In, the association that groups these companies, digital platforms already contribute 0.2% of Colombia’s gross domestic product and serve around 8 million mobility users, with some services growing between 30% and 45% per year.
Executives directly linked to the taxi business also recognize the impact. Ivan Martinez, training and taxi manager at Hyundai, explains that the use of mobility platforms is one of the main reasons for the drop in taxi sales, along with the expansion of mototaxis and other informal transport modes that capture short trips.
In practice, urban transition here means more options for passengers, but more fragmented demand for traditional cabs.
However, sector leaders insist that the story is not simply one of decline. Eduardo Visbal, vice president for foreign trade and vehicles at Fenalco, argues that Colombia is in a “transition stage” in which many taxis are themselves entering platforms, rather than disappearing. According to his reading, apps are becoming an additional intermediation layer for taxis, not only a competitor.
Research on behavior supports that blend. An Ipsos study in Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, and Pereira found that 84% of taxi drivers think apps improved the service and that five of 10 report higher income, mainly because they spend fewer minutes without passengers.
On the user side, 80% prefer to request taxis by app, and 86% already use these platforms for daily trips, figures that show strong adoption in mid‑income segments.
🚕 El segmento de taxis cayó en ventas en 2025 con 4.693 matrículas, su nivel más bajo en 14 años ante el auge de plataformas de movilidad. Mientras que el sector automotor cerró 2025 con un crecimiento de 26,50%. https://t.co/1zh687GYLj
— El Colombiano (@elcolombiano) February 20, 2026
Regulation and renewal set the next constraints
At the same time, structural factors weigh on investment decisions. Karol Garcia, director of the Automotive Industry Chamber at the Andi, notes that the 11% annual drop does not simply reflect economic conditions but also a lack of consistent renewal processes and regulatory uncertainty in several major cities.
If owners cannot predict how long a license will last or how new rules will treat platforms, they postpone buying new vehicles.
In Bogota, Medellin, and other capitals, debates about how to regulate digital intermediation have stretched for years. Bill 136 of 2024 seeks to define obligations for companies and drivers, create a national registry, and clarify who is legally responsible for operations and taxes in Colombia. Taxi unions warn that rules must avoid unfair competition and ensure that platforms share the same burdens they carry.
Even so, structural market barriers limit scale. While Congress advances regulation, local governments move at different speeds on taxi fleet renewal, alternative‑fuel incentives, and efforts to integrate taxis into mobility apps on equal terms.
This asymmetry leaves many drivers between two frameworks: analog concessions and digital demand.
The collapse of taxi sales signals a deeper urban transition, not the simple end of a trade that has driven Colombians for decades. On one side, platforms create new income options and raise the bar on service; on the other, they expose regulatory delays, uneven competition, and the limits of a fleet that struggles to renew itself.
How Colombia balances these forces will decide whether yellow cabs adapt as digital allies in the new mobility map, or whether they remain stuck in a model that city streets have already started to leave behind.