Nissan wins 10 year $1billion contract for NY taxis

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NYC Reveals the "Taxi of Tomorrow"

Published May 03, 2011

Nissan has won a 10-year, $1 billion contract to supply New York City with the “Taxi of Tomorrow,” the vehicle that will replace the Ford Crown Victoria as the standard yellow cab for the Big Apple’s taxi operators starting in 2013.

Based on a small commercial van that is not sold in the United States called the NV200, Nissan’s entry was chosen over similar proposals from Ford and Karsan, a Turkish automaker that recently pledged to assemble its vehicle in Brooklyn.

At an event today announcing the decision, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the Nissan was chosen due to excellent scores on rider comfort, safety features and lowest operating costs during the evaluation process.

The NV200 will be manufactured in Mexico and converted for taxi duty at a yet to be determined facility in the New York metropolitan area. The price is expected to be approximately $29,000. In stark contrast to the gas-guzzling, V8-powered Crown Victoria the NV200 will run on a fuel-efficient four-cylinder engine and get 25 miles per gallon.

Nissan says its taxi will have room for four passengers, a transparent roof for sightseeing, 12V and USB charging outlets for mobile electronic devices and a grape phenol-coated air filter to keep things fresh in the cabin. The NV200 also will be the first taxi to be crash tested with all equipment installed, including the security partition, and will be equipped with front and rear side curtain airbags.

There are more than 13,000 licensed taxis operating in New York City, and about 3,000 of them are replaced each year. In addition to the NV200, Nissan will also provide six Leaf electric cars to several operators in 2012 to test their viability for future use as cabs. A small number of Nissan Altima Hybrids are currently used in New York City as yellow cabs and as patrol cars by the New York Police Department.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/05/03/nyc-reveals-taxi-tomorrow/#ixzz1LO7is4D4
 
But what is the alternative? Buy a fleet of vehicles that are more expensive, cost more to maintain, and less comfortable?

And which of those companies would not have been outsourcing?
The 2002 designed Transitconnect from Ford, who'd build the car in Turkey or Romania?
The Turkish company, that would manufacture them overseas then take their word that they'd put the parts together in Brooklyn? (highly doubtful)
Or the new, highly acclaimed Nissan that is going to be built in Mexico.

Thank the UAW and politicians for that.
 
City’s Next Taxi: A Nissan Van Short on Looks, Perhaps, but Full of Comforts

This is the article in the NY Times. It’s a little more in depth than the Fox News article. It is in the Times backyard so I guess it would be.

City’s Next Taxi: A Nissan Van Short on Looks, Perhaps, but Full of Comforts

City’s Next Taxi: A Nissan Van Short on Looks, Perhaps, but Full of Comforts
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: May 3, 2011

The next New York City taxicab will have airplane-style reading lights, passenger air bags, and a so-called low-annoyance horn, engineered to stifle flagrant honkers. The back seat even has more leg room than the old couch-on-wheels Checker cab. But can a minivan win over New York?

The Nissan NV200, a bulky four-door van that seems more soccer mom than Travis Bickle, will become the all-but-exclusive vehicle of the city’s taxi fleet, the Bloomberg administration said on Tuesday, in the culmination of a contest of several years to redesign a city icon.

The minivan has a traditional, unstylish look, which even Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg conceded resembles a family car. Asked on Tuesday if the car had a suburban feel, the mayor smiled and replied, “That’s probably true.”
But the interior features, designed specifically for New York taxi use, promise comforts geared toward a more urban creature: power outlets to plug in phones and laptops; a transparent roof for city views; exterior lights that warn cyclists and pedestrians about opening doors; and custom climate controls for each seat.

Even honking, that great urban scourge, could be on the way out. Besides the low-intensity horn, the entire cab will be illuminated, outside and in, whenever its horn sounds, the better to help police track down noisy cabbies.
The first batch of the vans — a customized version of the ones now sold in Asia and Europe — is expected to appear by the end of 2013. Cab owners will be required to buy the Nissan vans when their existing vehicles are due for replacement.

By the end of the decade, almost every yellow cab in the city — there are currently about 13,000 — is expected to be a Nissan, the first time a foreign manufacturer has dominated the taxi fleet since the original red French Darracq cabs arrived in 1907.

The city announced its Taxi of Tomorrow competition in 2007 as a way to create a taxi better suited to its passengers. The prize: an exclusive 10-year contract worth an estimated $1 billion in sales.

The Nissan model, which will be built in Mexico and eventually be capable of running on an electric-only engine, beat out contenders from Karsan, a Turkish company that submitted a stylish, high-concept design, and Ford, maker of the fleet’s current mainstay, the macho Crown Victoria, which Ford plans to discontinue this year.

There were grumblings about the city’s selection even before the official announcement. Advocates for the disabled lamented the Nissan’s lack of options for wheelchair users, while supporters of Karsan, which pledged to build its cabs in Brooklyn, said the city had ignored a chance to invest in the local economy.

A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg said that the holders of medallions for cabs intended for the disabled would still be allowed to buy specially designed cabs fitted for wheelchairs.

In a letter, the public advocate, Bill de Blasio, asked the city comptroller, John C. Liu, to review the taxi competition for potential conflicts of interest. And Micah Z. Kellner, a state assemblyman who co-signed the letter, has filed a complaint with the Justice Department to see whether the city’s choice violated the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“Who knew that the Taxi of Tomorrow was the delivery van of yesterday?” Mr. Kellner wrote in a statement. “Just because you paint a van yellow doesn’t make it a taxi.”

But Mr. Bloomberg, at a news conference on Tuesday announcing the selection, called Nissan’s bid “far and away the best,” and said the city chose the manufacturer that could provide the most reliable vehicle “that meets our city’s very peculiar needs.”

The mayor added that he was skeptical about the feasibility of Karsan’s proposal for a Brooklyn taxi factory. “I don’t think between now and two years from now we could site a new school, much less a new industrial plant,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

The custom version of the Nissan van has not yet been built, but company representatives said they expected to present a prototype in the next few months. The van holds a maximum of four passengers — three in the back and one in the front.

Its seats are coated to resist stains and bacteria, and the floors are equipped with lights to ease the recovery of purses and briefcases on a late-night ride. The charging station includes a regular outlet and two USB ports. Sliding doors will prevent “dooring” of cyclists and passing cars.

The Nissan could be a throwback to the earlier days, when passenger-controlled radios came standard in spacious cabs like the DeSoto Skyview.
“Until the 1970s, cabs weren’t bad,” said Graham Hodges, a taxi historian and former cabby. “They were good and roomy cars; they would fit five people easily. People didn’t complain about them being nasty and unpleasant.”

The city appears to be aiming for that earlier era. “Cabs today do not inspire the same type of affection and customer loyalty that the Checker did,” David S. Yassky, the chairman of the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, said on Tuesday. “The goal in this process was to get us a taxi that people will talk about 20 years from now the way they talk about the Checker today.”

So can a Nissan van attract a similar cult? Mr. Bloomberg, asked about the romance of the taxicab at the news conference, turned to look at an image of the van projected on a large screen.

“Looks romantic to me,” the mayor said, with a “What can you do?” tone, as the room erupted in laughter.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 4, 2011, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: City’s Next Taxi: A Nissan
 
It will be a lot easir to go to Mexico and apply for a job at the plant then go to Turkey and live under Sharia Law.
 
Here is my opinion on UAW, I think they need to be on the HILL fighting for our workers. Meaning they need to get legislation that says this "All FOREIGN auto makers will have a plant in the USA for vehicles to be sold in USA. And all employees will be American"

US outsources over 83% of its manufactured goods. And with that high % of outsourcing, all but maybe 5% are American decent at those foreign plants. So why is it not the same here? If we allow them to export their vehicles to sale and make profit, then they should have to have them built here, and Americans can profit from the employment aspect of it.

I know you are going to say I am talking out my A** and I am wishful thinking, but hey, if no one is asking for it, how can it be done.
 
That would be nice. It'll look like Christmas from when you look out the window of your apartment.
 
TAX IMPORTS period!!! products from USA going overseas get taxed raising the price but products coming in from europe /asia do not get taxed!!!!!. If an import cost more than its USA made twin ...what would you buy? a Ford ranger for 25k or the same mazda for 30k...
 
Right- so let's start a trade war, precisely as our economy is crashing and the dollar is imploding!! Brilliant. (/sarcasm)

Better idea.
End the government protection of the UAW.
Reduce the tax rates on corporations.
ENCOURAGE MORE INSOURCING.
Honda, BMW, Toyota, Subaru, Hyundai, among others built their cars here, usually in states where the UAW doesn't own the politicians.

And automakers who fail should be left to fail.
From the ashes we'll see new, healthy, companies with innovative ideas, without decades of legacy costs due to bad management and labor negotiations.
 
Calabrio said:
Right- so let's start a trade war, precisely as our economy is crashing and the dollar is imploding!! Brilliant. (/sarcasm)

Better idea.
End the government protection of the UAW.
Reduce the tax rates on corporations.
ENCOURAGE MORE INSOURCING.
Honda, BMW, Toyota, Subaru, Hyundai, among others built their cars here, usually in states where the UAW doesn't own the politicians.

And automakers who fail should be left to fail.
From the ashes we'll see new, healthy, companies with innovative ideas, without decades of legacy costs due to bad management and labor negotiations.
Click to expand...






I got no problem with that:):cool:
 
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