(May 3, 2011) NEW YORK — New York is “hailing” a new era of urban mobility today, as the city with the nation’s largest taxi fleet has selected Nissan to design and supply the next-generation “Taxi of Tomorrow.”

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) selected the Nissan NV200 as the exclusive taxi of New York City beginning in late 2013.

The award comes after a rigorous selection process that occurred over more than two years. The competition built upon more than a century of taxi industry heritage to drive the design and creation of a purpose-built vehicle, tuned to the city’s streets. The other two finalists included Ford Motor Co. with its Transit Connect and Karsan, a Turkish vehicle manufacturer.

The first of the new cars were expected to be rolled out by the fall of 2014, and would eventually make up the entire fleet as older models wear out and are replaced.

“Nissan is proud to provide the next generation of taxis for the City of New York,” said Nissan Americas Chairman Carlos Tavares. “The NV200 taxi will give Nissan the opportunity to showcase our dedication to vehicle quality and urban mobility to more than 600,000 passengers every day.”

The Nissan NV200 taxi will be produced in North America at Nissan’s facility in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The taxi will be a modified version of the compact commercial vehicle currently available in global markets including Japan, Europe and China. Manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of the vehicle, with all planned standard features, will be around $29,000.

As part of the program, Nissan also will work with the city and taxi owners on a pilot program to study the use of zero-emission, electric vehicles as taxis. Nissan will provide up to six 100-percent electric Nissan LEAFs to taxi owners for testing in 2012 as well as the charging stations to support their use.

“The city’s Taxi of Tomorrow is the Nissan NV200 – and it’s going to be the safest, most comfortable and most convenient cab the city has ever had,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“We started this process to leverage our taxi industry’s purchasing power to get the highest quality taxi, one that that can expand and redefine the legendary image of New York City taxicabs. The new taxis ... meets the top priorities identified by the public in our on-line survey.”