2014 Nissan NV200 Taxi debuts for NYC’s 600,000 daily taxi rides
The great city of New York and Nissan have been known to be collaborating on a new taxicab project to help increase the city’s energy consumption and taxicab safety. And to finally celebrate the next step at innovating the city’s massive network of taxicabs, Nissan finally unveiled the production version of the Nissan NV200 Taxi.
“We’re proud to introduce a new era of urban mobility to New York with the Nissan NV200 Taxi – New York City’s Taxi of Tomorrow,” Ghosn said. “The exclusive Taxi of Tomorrow draws on Nissan’s global experience in commercial vehicles, as well as insight from New York City taxi drivers and passengers, who helped identify important improvements over today’s cabs. The Nissan taxi will deliver unprecedented levels of innovation and comfort to New York’s 600,000 daily taxi riders.”
Since the NV200 is powered by a 2.0L four-pot, power and performance are obviously not a priority, unlike the other list of features that make the NV200 the ideal taxicab for almost any city.
The NV200 is of a van design, featuring sliding doors, a panoramic roof that provides the occupants with an upward view of the skyscrapers, opening side windows, independent climate controls, a special Active Carbon Lined headliner that neutralizes interior odors, mobile charging stations and much more.
The Nissan NV200 is also the first taxi to be comprehensively tested for safety and certified for full taxi partition.
So while the NV200 represents a major shift forward from the gas-guzzling V8-powered Crown Victorias, it is still rather interesting that the NV200 doesn’t come with a hybrid powertrain. And this is considering the amount of idle time New York taxis experience and the high availability of hybrid powertrains. Being a New York City-area native, it was promising to see the increasing amount of Nissan Alitma Hybrids, Ford Focus Hybrids, Toyota Prii and Camry Hybrids taking up taxi duty in various fleets around the city. But I guess the city of New York and Nissan had their reasons not to.
– By: Chris Chin
