New York City’s ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ to be the Nissan NV200

New York City’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) has set April 20, 2015, as the program start date for the Taxi of Tomorrow program, which calls for most retiring taxis to be replaced with the Nissan NV200 and will significantly increase the number of wheelchair-accessible taxis in the fleet.

Based on the TLC Taxi of Tomorrow guidelines, the NV200 Taxi will be the sole option for Manhattan yellow taxis not being replaced by a hybrid or an alternate wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) where additional choice among competitors is maintained. Nissan is working with BraunAbility, the global leader in automotive mobility, to provide WAV Nissan NV200 Taxis, which now are available for purchase.

More than 500 Nissan NV200 Taxis already are in service in New York City. The NV200 Taxi has more content specifically tailored to use as a New York City cab than any vehicle prior to it including important safety features.

The Nissan NV200 taxi is the only taxi that leaves the factory with the installed partition, which has been specifically designed to ensure that no safety features are compromised by aftermarket installations. The vehicle was crash-tested with the partition and meets Federal safety standards, an attribute no other automaker provides for taxis. Aftermarket installations in some taxis can render safety features such as airbags non-functional.

The Nissan NV200 also meets global pedestrian-protection standards aimed at softening the impact to a pedestrian if struck by a vehicle.

Nissan says it created its own ‘New York Avenue’ at its Arizona proving grounds to replicate harsh conditions of NYC streets to rigorously test the Nissan NV200 taxi to tune the suspension specifically to NYC road conditions. Additionally, the company hired New York City cab drivers to test vehicles around the city, collecting data that was used to refine the vehicle. In total, these drivers logged enough miles to cover every street in Manhattan more than 300 times.

The NV200 taxi also offers passengers a variety of amenities to make their trip more pleasant, including ample cargo room for transporting luggage and USB charging ports in addition to a 12-volt electrical outlet.

The Nissan NV200 Taxi offers a functional and spacious interior housed in a compact exterior footprint; in fact, when the Nissan NV200 Taxi is deployed across the entire taxi fleet, the equivalent of five square-acres of space will be freed up on city streets.

Key safety features include: Front and rear-seat occupant curtain airbags specifically designed to deploy around the integrated partition and seat-mounted airbags for the front row; standard traction control and Vehicle Dynamic Control; sliding doors to lessen risk of pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists getting struck by doors opening unexpectedly; and lights that alert other road users that taxi doors are opening.

The NV200 Taxi is powered by a proven 2.0-litre 4-cylinder powertrain and is priced at approximately $29,700 (Rs 18.81 lakh).