New York clearly wasn't enough for Nissan. After the Taxi of Tomorrow, meet the Hackney Cab of Nightmares, based on the trusty NV200 platform. Round LED lamps, large butt, the works.
Enjoying the support of the London Mayor's office, the Transport for London and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, the new cab was designed at Nissan Design Europe in Paddington, London, the studio responsible for creating the Juke and Europe's Qashqai.
Powered by a 1.6-liter gas engine linked to an automatic box, the production version will be introduced in December, with a zero emission electric version following in 2015. And this is only the beginning. After New York (where the NV200 lost the right to be the exclusive cab) and London, Nissan aims for Barcelona and Tokyo. The latter promises a good fight.
Nissan has a long standing relationship with Hackney Carriages, supplying its 2.7-liter TD27 diesel engine for the FX4 'Fairway' and TX1 black cabs. You know, the classic ones that are supposed to be saved by the Chinese. The ones we like.
On the plus side, the NV200 version also has the required 25-foot (7.6-meter) turning circle, so it should be practical in the narrow streets of London, and it's much cleaner than London's current fleet.
Call me old-fashioned, but the future looks ugly to me.
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