New York mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to see one that one in every three taxis in the Big Apple runs on electricity by the end of the decade. As the winner of a major contract to supply the city with new taxis and the maker of the most successful pure electric cars, Nissan is just the company for the job.
The automaker has announced it's donating six Leaf EVs to the be used by volunteers during a year-long pilot program. Taxis are usually in service for 24 hours at a time and it will be interesting to see how charging can be worked into the system.
"As part of our commitment to zero emission vehicles for the mass-market, Nissan is looking for ways to broaden the use of electric cars, including commercial applications like taxis. Following the selection of Nissan NV200 as New York City's Taxi of Tomorrow, our relationship with the city provides us the ultimate proving ground to conduct this LEAF taxi pilot to help optimize the use of electric vehicle technology for future applications," said Joe Castelli, vice president, Nissan Commercial Vehicles.
"Even though the Taxi of Tomorrow won't be on the road for another six months, we're already looking ahead to the taxi of the day after tomorrow. Nissan's proven track record with electric vehicles will put us ahead of the curve in helping us answer important questions about incorporating electric taxis into the fleet so that we can achieve the goal of a one-third electric taxi fleet by 2020," added Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"As part of our commitment to zero emission vehicles for the mass-market, Nissan is looking for ways to broaden the use of electric cars, including commercial applications like taxis. Following the selection of Nissan NV200 as New York City's Taxi of Tomorrow, our relationship with the city provides us the ultimate proving ground to conduct this LEAF taxi pilot to help optimize the use of electric vehicle technology for future applications," said Joe Castelli, vice president, Nissan Commercial Vehicles.
"Even though the Taxi of Tomorrow won't be on the road for another six months, we're already looking ahead to the taxi of the day after tomorrow. Nissan's proven track record with electric vehicles will put us ahead of the curve in helping us answer important questions about incorporating electric taxis into the fleet so that we can achieve the goal of a one-third electric taxi fleet by 2020," added Mayor Michael Bloomberg.