Nissan NV200 Is Officially The Taxi Of New York

According to Car And Driver on their piece earlier this week (July 3, 2015) it looks like you’ll be seeing a lot more Nissan NV200’s if you ever hail a cab in the Big Apple. The 2015 Nissan NV 200, a light commercial vehicle produced by Nissan, cleared its “final legal” hurdle establishing itself as New York’s official yellow cab. This ended a journey that took Nissan’s best lobbyists more than four years to push through city council and the state’s court system. A ruling by the Court of Appeals in Albany slammed down a challenge by fleet operators that the Taxi and Limousine Commission had gone over its boundaries on designating one vehicle as “the official” Taxi of New York.

Two years before New York officially selected the Nissan NV200, Ford called it quits on the Ford Crown Victoria and the entire Panther Platform in general. That means limousine liveries and taxi cab companies including the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission who regulates more than 13,587 individual medallion licenses in the city had to find a suitable replacement.Nissan won out big time scoring a $390 million contract to supply New York city with Taxi’s for the next ten years.

Unlike the Ford Crown Victoria which it replaces, the Nissan NV200 will be better suited for the streets of New York. Ingress and egress is facilitated by a sliding door and relatively low entry point. Passengers in the rear will enjoy room for their belongings as well as being wheelchair accessible if need be, something you could never do in a Ford Crown Victoria.Some fleet operators can opt out of using a Nissan NV200 if they select amongst the list of available hybrid taxis which include the Toyota Prius V, Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Lexus RX450h.

So congrats New York, you now officially have a new icon roaming its way around New York City streets. Art of Gears is curious to see how this all plays out with the amount of “For Hire” car licenses being allocated each month to satisfy the ever increasing demand for Uber drivers. That altogether is an entirely different story.

In the meantime, check out this road test that Motorweek carried out using the 2014 Nissan NV200 below!