Nissan, NYC unveil fleet of electric taxis to celebrate Earth Day

Shawn Knight

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Nissan has joined forces with the City of New York to unveil a fleet of electric cars that will be put to use as taxis in the Big Apple. The six Nissan Leaf taxis are part of a test program and a larger goal from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that would see electric cars make up a third of the city’s taxi fleet by 2020.

The experiment, launched in celebration of Earth Day earlier today, will give the city as well as others around the country an idea of how reliable electric cars can be under such strenuous usage scenarios. Nissan said the cars in question will have a range of roughly 100 miles which should cover the average taxi drivers’ shift of 70 miles.

Of course, mileage can and will vary between cab so in order to prevent the cars from running out of juice during a shift, Nissan will install quick charging stations around the city to enable drivers to fuel up between and during shifts if need-be.

The six-car fleet is expected to hit the streets this spring, ahead of the debut of the Nissan NV 200 van later this year. Known as the Taxi of Tomorrow, the NV 200 beat out several others in a competition to standardize the New York taxi fleet last year.

David Yassky, taxi and limousine commissioner, said an electric version of the NV 200 should be available soon although not before the official launch of the regular NV 200 cabs later this year.

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Hehe. New York City unveils fleet of electric coal-pwered taxis to celebrate Earth day. :)

If they were only intelligent enough to realize what they have accomplished.
 
Once everyone follows the suit, it will become the norm. Once it becomes the norm, the competition for electrics will stiffen. Once competition for the new market becomes cutthroat, innovation follows. Thus changing the world.
 
Little known fact about electric cars (and windmills and other large electric motors) is that they use an element called neodymium which destroys the environment when it's mined. Although I guess, so long as it's destroying the environment in China, we can breathe easy in NY. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mos...er-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html

Anyway... they claim 100 miles to the charge... how much does that decrease when you're sitting in traffic or waiting for a fare?
 
"..how much does that decrease when you're sitting in traffic or waiting for a fare?"

MilwaukeeMike, you surprise me. The battery life is mainly affected while driving. Though sitting in traffic will still use it for A/C or radio, but to a fraction of a degree.
 
Should be interesting to see how often they have to replace battery modules. As we all know constant usage cycling of batteries and the rapid charging will decrease their life dramatically.
 
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