Over the past year, we’ve seen quite a bit of Nissan’s e-NV200, an all-electric minivan, and its taxi-based variant. 

A cross between the gasoline NV2000, a minivan produced by Nissan in Europe and Japan to rival the Ford Transit, and the 2012 Nissan Leaf, we first heard about the all-electric e-NV200 when Nissan won a $1 billion exclusive contract from 2013 to supply New York City with taxis for ten years. 

Since then, the van-based e-NV200 has been tested in England and Japan for various duties, including working with FedEx and the Japanese Post Office, but now the all-electric van is coming to the U.S. too. 

As part of its continued testing program with FedEx. Nissan will extend its testing to include the U.S., Brazil, and Singapore, ahead of the vehicle’s official production launch in 2013. 

Although Nissan hasn’t said where the e-NV200 will undergo U.S. testing with FedEx, we think New York city has to be top of the list, given the automaker’s ties with the New York taxi fleet. 

Nissan's electric-powered e-NV200 concept.

Nissan's electric-powered e-NV200 concept.

While Nissan only seems to be testing the van-based e-NV200 at present, the city of New York, along with the city of London, England, has already committed to help Nissan test the specially-designed taxi-variant of the e-NV200. 

Designed to carry passengers and luggage, the taxi-variant of the e-NV200 will look very similar to the passenger-carrying e-NV200 concept we spent time with at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, but kitted out with the standard New York Taxi livery, a slightly further back rear seat, and the obligatory advertising screens found in every NYC yellow cab. 

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