What a bummer. New York has just chosen a single new taxi design to replace the current mishmash of vans, cramped hybrid sedans and SUVs (RIP Crown Vic, which was also uncomfortable). The Taxi and License Commission COULD have chosen a bespoke design that would be unique in the world, instantly recognizable as a New York Cab, just like the London Cab. It could have been roomy, airy, equipped with infotainment, USB jacks, climate controls, and a panoramic sunroof. It could have been ADA compliant, with a ramp that could be deployed to either curb allowing someone in a wheelchair to enter without assistance and secure him or herself facing forward leaving room for four more passengers (currently only 300 of 13,000 New York cabs are wheelchair accessible). It could even have been assembled in Brooklyn.
Yes the cab this frequent New York visitor was rooting for, and the one that 65.5 percent of the New Yorkers polled on the subject preferred was the Karsan V1. Designed, engineered, and largely produced in Turkey, the Karsan may have been a tough choice to make because of the comparative lack of a track name recognition and no locally established track record, but since its founding in 1966 the company has produced four million vehicles on behalf of Hyundai, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault Trucks. And sure, perhaps the late decision to perform final assembly in Sunset Park Brooklyn (no cars have been built in the boroughs since Studebaker sold its Harlem factory to Borden Dairies in the 1930s) may have been a desperate eleventh-hour political ploy.
I just loved the concept of this vehicle. For packaging reasons it employed a front-drive Chrysler-sourced powertrain–probably a compressed natural gas-fired 2.4-liter and a six-speed automatic–situated behind the passengers and driving the rear wheels. (The company claimed pure electric and hybrid drivetrains would package in the same envelope.) The airy spaceframe architecture was said to bring curb weight in at 3200 pounds. The headlamps were tucked way up under the windshield, out of the damage zone in case of those perhaps frequent front-end bumps. The body panels were all plastic, molded in Yellow Cab yellow through and through to eliminate painting emissions and simplify minor damage repair. Drivers would have been coddled in a suspension seat with extra space for their belongings and a sound system of their own, while customers would have had entertainment and connectivity choices of their own, ranging beyond the dreaded Taxi TV. Credit-card payments and receipt printing would all have happened in the back.
Many of these features may indeed be incorporated in the Nissan NV200 that the Taxi and Limousine Commission selected this morning to serve the city’s needs for the next 10 years, but it’s just a dorky looking van that’s being converted to taxi duty. It’ll be available to anybody in colors other than yellow. It is therefore just not very special. And The Capitol of The World deserved a special cab, seems to me.
Frank Markus on May 3 2011 12:23 PM Tags : Karsen V1 NYC TLC
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