Nissan electric vehicles at the company?s Yokohama headquarters

The cab, based on Nissan’s successful NV200 van, is set to debut on the streets of New York in October 2013, six years after the Taxi of Tomorrow project kicked off.

Shown at the New York auto show in April, the vehicle offers superior passenger and driver comfort, the highest safety standards and significant fuel-economy improvements, said Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer.

“The question now is can you bring innovation to the taxi business or excitement to the taxi business and we think we can and we think we’ve demonstrated it through the New York taxi,” said Palmer.

“We’ve taken a very innovative car—the NV200—and we’ve adapted it to the requirements of the New York taxi commission, basically answering each and everyone of their questions.”

The new taxi, which also featured at this year’s Beijing motor show, is one of many iterations of the NV200, a key plank of Nissan’s plans to become a leading producer of light-commercial vehicles.

In January, Nissan debuted the NV200-based Evalia in India, while this month Nissan said it will produce an all-electric NV200 in Barcelona, building on tests in Japan and Europe.

“Considering those types of things, global deployment is key for the success of the LCV business expansion,” said Nissan Corporate Vice President Hideto Murakami. “NV200 is the first model for our global deployment.”

In Yokohama, all eyes were on the trademark yellow cab, winning attention–and perhaps some future passengers–7,000 miles from the streets of New York.

www.nissan-global.com