After Clearing Legal Hurdles, Taxi of Tomorrow Now Taxi of Today

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission finally cleared its last hurdle in making the Nissan NV200 the new official taxi for NYC, Car and Driver reports.

The commission installed the NV200 as the new official taxi back in 2011, but legal challenges have delayed that process until now. The city licenses more than 13,000 cabs.

The challenge stemmed from a group of taxi owners taking exception to the commission dwindling the number of acceptable cab models from 47 down to just one. However, the C&D report points out, owners can choose from a slightly larger list of acceptable hybrids (by larger, we mean three: Lexus 450h, Prius V and Toyota Highlander Hybrid) instead of the gas-powered NV200.

Nissan won a $1 billion bid to become the supplier of the new taxi four years ago beating out Ford and Turkish automaker Karsan.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Garrett Garrett on Jul 05, 2015

    I would really apreciate a complete eTaxi. This will reduce the city smog much.

  • Plee Plee on Jul 05, 2015

    I assume these will have the CVT in them. Good luck with that. Hauling around a load of people in city driving will tear up those transmissions.

  • Athos Nobile Athos Nobile on Jul 05, 2015

    They should have chosen the London Taxi. Much classier looking and has all the possible features they want, including provisions for wheelchairs.

  • Jthorner Jthorner on Jul 05, 2015

    In 2011 Uber and Lyft didn't exist. In the time it took to resolve legal battles, and entirely new way of doing taxicab service came to exist. Meanwhile in the last 30 months the value of a NYC Taxi Medallion has dropped from a mind-numbing $1.3M to "only" $840,000.

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