With a reversal of a lower court ruling, Nissan's NV200 will be the cab of choice for the next 10 years in New York City.
Overturning a lower court decision, a New York appeals court has given its blessing to the ambitious, if controversial, NY Taxi of Tomorrow project that could soon see fleets of Nissan NV200s prowling the streets of the Big Apple.
The decision is a setback for taxi operators who had wanted more flexibility when it comes to the hacks they purchase, but it’s certainly good news Nissan which was given the lucrative 10-year contract in 2011, beating out bids from Ford Motor Co. and a little Turkish company that had developed a vehicle specifically for the city contract.
The project ran into a roadblock when a lower court sided with opponents of the Taxi of Tomorrow plan. Among other things, drivers were concerned they would spend too much on fuel because the NV200 isn’t a hybrid.
But Justice David B. Saxe of the Manhattan appeals court, this week wrote that the Taxi of Tomorrow project put together by the city’s taxi and limousine commission is a “legally appropriate response to the agency’s statutory obligation to produce a 21st-century taxicab consistent with the broad interests and perspectives that the agency is charged with protecting.”
The decision wasn’t unanimous. One dissenting judge argued that the city exceeded its authority, even if the Taxi of Tomorrow program might be “rational and consistent” with New York’s needs.
The project initially counted among its opponents the city’s then-public advocate Bill De Blasio, who in 2012 complained to the taxi commission that the plan would not create jobs for New Yorkers. He also found fault with the fact that only about 2,000 of the Nissan cabs would be fitted for disabled riders.
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Proponents noted, however, that De Blasio took $200,000 in donations from the taxi industry during his campaign for mayor.
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Curiously, he has appeared to switch positions since replacing former Mayor Michael Bloomberg who supported the Taxi of Tomorrow project. The new mayor recently appointed the planner who developed the concept for Bloomberg as the new head of the NY taxi commission.
Considering it may eventually sell more than 12,000 customized NV200 vans to NYC taxi fleet operators – a plan expected to generate more than $1 billion in business – Nissan seems appropriately pleased by the latest ruling.
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“Given the specific NYC taxi research and development that Nissan conducted – including crash testing with the installed partition – we are confident that the Nissan NV200 taxi will provide a solution that is optimal in safety, comfort and convenience for passengers and drivers alike,” the automaker declared in a statement.
The NV200 cab will be “the most comfortable taxi ever to hit our streets,” Bloomberg declared after the winner of the Taxi of Tomorrow competition was originally announced, pointing to the many amenities being added to the NV200 for city duty. That includes better interior lighting, USB and 12-volt power ports for cellphones and iPads, and even carbon headliners and anti-microbial floor mats to keep things cleaner and hold down smells.