Yesterday, an appeals court in Manhattan approved Nissan Motor Co's $1 billion plan to build a new vehicle exclusively for the taxi fleet of New York City. The court decision was a blow to cab operators, who opposed the plan as it would result to them being forced to buy a specific model to replace its existing cabs.
"(The Taxi of Tomorrow program fulfills the Taxi and Limousine Commission's obligation) to produce a 21st-century taxicab consistent with the broad interests and perspectives that the agency is charged with protecting," the appeals court said.
In 2011, Nissan won a contract, which would entail them to supply over 15,000 minivans with sliding doors, more luggage space and back-seat airbags for the city's taxi fleet over ten years. The taxi fleet of New York City is considered the largest in the country, Bloomberg said. The commission in September 2012 then appointed the Nissan NV200 as the official "Taxi of Tomorrow," and had required owners of medallions to purchase the vehicles priced at $29,700. Cab operators in New York have the right to provide taxi services in the city with the medallions as proof of license.
In December of the same year, taxi fleet operators sought legal action over the requirement, which prompted a judge to halt the program five months later and declared that it violated the administrative code as the program did not allow medallion owners to buy hybrid cars. Following the decision, the city then amended the rules to allow the medallion owners to purchase hybrids until Nissan later on developed a hybrid version of the official taxi, Bloomberg said.
When operators sued again, the program was halted for the second time by a judge and declared the commission was out of the line under the city charter for requiring the purchase of a specific vehicle.
However, it looks like all systems go for the NYC taxi program. In Yesterday's ruling, Justice David Saxe wrote, "(The taxi commission) carried out its assigned mission with an exacting process lasting from 2007 to 2011, obtaining input from all conceivable interests and concerns, to ensure a final decision that would best satisfy taxi passengers, owners, and drivers, as well as the general public."
