The Taxi of Tomorrow Is Down to 3 Choices
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Credit: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com)
The finalists, from top: Karsan, Nissan and Ford. The winner is expected to be announced early next year.
Updated, 3:50 p.m. | Lots of headroom. Sloping picture windows. A spacious trunk, and the oblong frame of a minivan.
This could soon be the new look of the New York City taxicab, an icon of the urban streetscape that is set for an unprecedented overhaul in 2014.
The Bloomberg administration on Monday unveiled three finalists in its Taxi of Tomorrow competition, which will replace the current fleet of sedans and hybrid sport utility vehicles with a single design for the next decade.
The three competing designs, submitted by Ford, Nissan and the Turkish manufacturer Karsan, bear little resemblance to the Ford Crown Victoria, the current stalwart of the fleet, which is to be discontinued next year.
All three designs feature a tall roof familiar to taxi passengers in London, and a generously sized backseat area with far more legroom than the cramped hybrid cars currently on the streets.
The winner of the contest will receive an exclusive right to supply the city’s yellow taxis for a decade, but officials on Monday insisted that the competition remained in flux. Officials at the Taxi and Limousine Commission expect to continue negotiating with the manufacturers over specific features like wheelchair accessibility and legroom.
“Each is promising, but none is perfect,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said of the designs. “We are not obliged to go with anything if it does not meet our needs.”
A Web site has been set up for the public to weigh in on the competitors and answer questions about what sorts of features they would like to see in a taxi.
A winner is expected to be announced early next year, and the first new cars will be rolled out by the fall of 2014, officials said.
Ford’s submission, the Transit Connect, is a customized version of a commercial vehicle already on the market in Europe. Nissan’s North American branch submitted a design based on its NV200 van.
Karsan, a Turkish manufacturer that builds cars for Fiat and Hyundai, submitted the only design that was not based on a pre-existing vehicle. Its car, the V1, is the only candidate that is fully wheelchair accessible.
David S. Yassky, the city’s taxi commissioner, said Ford had a history of reliable service with the city, but Nissan’s design featured the most legroom and the potential for an entirely electric vehicle. The Karsan design earned points for its accessibility options.
Anyone who fills out the online survey is entered into a raffle to win up to $5,000 worth of free taxi rides.
Four other submissions were rejected by the city, including a design from General Motors.
Some taxi garage owners have expressed hesitation about the contest, saying they are concerned they will be beholden to a single manufacturer for parts and maintenance.
For more debate on the Taxi of Tomorrow, see the coverage on the Wheels blog of a discussion last week at the Museum of the City of New York.
Credit: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com)
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