New York
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If you're driving into rural areas to spend time with nature, there's nothing more noticeable than a bright yellow New York City taxi cab to do it in. A couple of months ago, we had a chance to test out Nissan's new "Taxi of Tomorrow" for New York City, based on its NV200 small commercial van--but with a whole lot of updates. Another outlet had already done the perfect article on using a NYC taxi to transport your friends, so we went in the other direction: up to the mountains. While the NV200 Taxi is really meant mostly for city use, we covered our usual test route--267 miles this...
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NYC Issues Roadmap For Electrifying One Third Of Taxis By 2020
New York City hopes to electrify one third of its taxi fleet by 2020.
Stephen Edelstein -
Electric Cars To Replace NYC's Iconic Horse-Drawn Carriages, New Mayor Says
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio belives the horse-drawn carriages are "inhumane."
Stephen Edelstein -
Renewable 'Pedal Power' To Light Times Square Ball Tonight
Never let it be said that New York City doesn't get everything it can out of its 50 million-plus tourist visitors each year. In this case, it's pedal-powered energy to offset the roughly 50 kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed by the famous lighted ball that drops to signal the New Year. Times...
John Voelcker -
NYC Law To Make 20 Percent Of New Parking Spaces Electric-Car Ready
New parking facilities in the Big Apple will have to electric-car charging capability for 20 percent of their spaces.
Stephen Edelstein -
NYC 'Manhole Covers' To Hide Resonance Chargers For Electric Cars
Hevo Power hopes its wireless charging stations can keep electric delivery vehicles moving in urban areas.
Stephen Edelstein -
So what will New York City's next taxi be? As little as a week ago, you might have assumed that Nissan's NV200 'Taxi of Tomorrow' would become the dominant cab in NYC. That plan has now been curtailed, at least to some degree, by a state Supreme Court ruling that the city's plan to standardize its 14,000 medallion taxis on a single vehicle is unlawful. Supplies of the city's two now-dominant cabs (the aging, out-of-production Ford Crown Victoria sedan, and the efficient but equally defunct Ford Escape Hybrid) will eventually dry up--so perhaps no single vehicle is likely to wear the famous...
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NYC 'Taxi Of Tomorrow' Rule Deemed Unlawful; Fatal Blow?
The power to contract and compel medallion owners to purchase the Nissan NV200 from Nissan for 10 years does not exist in the City Charter. And with that sentence, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shlomo Hagler ruled yesterday that New York City's plan to standardize its 14,000 medallion taxis is...
John Voelcker -
Reducing Emissions, One NYC Street-Vendor Cart At A Time
New York's food vendors are going electric, thanks to a pilot program that replaces generators with a connection to the grid.
Stephen Edelstein -
NYC's Nissan NV200 Taxi Of Tomorrow Rolls Off Lines In Mexico
New York, your Taxi of Tomorrow is on its way--as the first examples have just rolled off the line at its factory in Mexico. Taxi of Tomorrow is another name for Nissan's NV200 van, chosen by the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission as the city's official taxi--replacing cars like the venerable...
Antony Ingram -
NYC's Phone Booths To Die; Could Sites Charge Electric Cars Instead?
Aside from movie characters and intoxicated individuals looking for somewhere to relieve themselves, nobody really uses public pay telephones any more. New York City has around 8,000 active payphone kiosks, which is a lot of real estate going to waste. So why not, as The New York Times writes, put...
Antony Ingram -
Half Of All Electric Cars Are Sold In 5 Cities; Can You Name Them?
Different vehicles appeal to different markets. More than half of all Chevrolet Suburban extra-long full-size sport utility vehicles, for instance, are sold in the state of Texas. So where do plug-in electric cars tend to cluster? Not surprisingly, in progressive regions with activist governments...
John Voelcker -
There can be few tougher tests for a car than as a taxi in New York City. Tough roads and even tougher traffic makes the city a workout for any vehicle, but one cabby is enjoying the Nissan Leaf he's driving as part of the city's electric vehicle trials. In fact, driver Uppkar Singh Thind described himself as "over the moon" to the New York Post, as one of just six people picked to drive the electric cab when it was launched back in April. Thind paid only $1 for the car as part of the trial, which will last just one year before the car goes back to Nissan. Not everyone gets a Nissan Leaf for...
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OK, NYC Taxis Can Be Hybrids After All, City Says
Politics in New York City are a tough, bruising game. Pit a billionaire Mayor with a desire to make the city work better and cut carbon emissions against the entrenched interests of taxi owners, and you get an ongoing battle. The latest skirmish is a concession by the NYC Taxi and Limousine...
John Voelcker -
NYC Bans Electric Bikes (Again), Launches Bike Sharing System
About a month ago, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill that banned electric bikes from the city's streets. (Like all bikes, they're also banned from sidewalks--not that every rider seems to know that.) And as a Navigant Research blog post points out, e-bikes were already illegal...
John Voelcker -
Free Electric-Car Charging Illegal On Municipal Property In NY State
You might think that installing a charging station for plug-in electric cars shouldn't be that complicated. It's essentially an electric appliance. But in the city of Watertown, New York, City Attorney Robert J. Slye recently determined that installing charging stations in a municipal parking lot...
John Voelcker -
NYC Officially Launches Nissan Leaf Electric Taxi Program
Within a few weeks, a handful of New Yorkers each day will ride in a new kind of taxi: an all-electric Nissan Leaf. On Monday, to celebrate Earth Day, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg joined with Nissan officials to announce that six Nissan Leaf taxis would go into service this spring. The...
John Voelcker -
Formerly Hybrid-Hating NYC Cab Owners Slam Taxi Of Tomorrow...Because It's Not Hybrid (Yet)
New York cabbies love their hybrid taxis--they're far more efficient than previous taxi designs, and proving incredibly reliable too. But those hybrids are under threat from Nissan's NV200 'Taxi of Tomorrow'--van-turned-cab which won a contest to provide New York City with virtually all of its...
Antony Ingram -
Live in the New York area? If you do, you're perfectly placed to get some hefty discounts on Toyota's Prius Plug-In right now. In fact, you're in the right place to get a discount on several green models at the moment, including the regular Prius, as well as Ford C-Max and Fusion hybrids. According to Wards Auto (via Autoblog Green), discounts of up to $4,650 are available on the 2013 Toyota Prius Plug-In for those living in the Manhattan 10036 zip-code area--or as much as $6,500 if you're able to settle for the 2012 model. In comparison, the regular Prius gets a rebate of $500 right now. If...
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NYC To Get 10,000 Electric-Car Charging Parking Spaces?
New York City could be about to make a major step towards increasing electric car adoption in the city. NTC Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants a fifth of all new parking spaces to be wired up for, and set aside for electric vehicles. According to Transportation Nation, Bloomberg's prepared notes for...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota Doesn't Seek Hybrid Taxi Sales--Cabbies Just Love Them Anyway
Taken a taxi anywhere recently? Nowadays, there's a pretty good chance that if you have, it's been a hybrid--low running costs and great reliability records are starting to make them popular with drivers, as gas prices creep ever upwards. Toyota's Prius and Camry Hybrids are becoming a familiar...
Antony Ingram -
U.S. Taxis Get Greener; Hybrid & Electric Cabs Increasing
For decades, the stalwart of the taxi ranks has been the full-size sedan. Sturdy, simple and cheap to buy, cars like Ford's Crown Victoria have become part of the landscape in cities like New York. But with rising gas prices and concerns over emissions, things are really changing. While not yet a...
Antony Ingram -
Assessing Sandy: Are Electric Cars A Better Bet In Emergencies?
For many of us, lines at gas stations and homes without power are no more than news, but millions on the U.S. East Coast are still coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Many areas are still without power, and gasoline is a worryingly rare commodity for a transport system utterly dependent...
Antony Ingram -
NYC's Hybrid Taxis Stay On The Road As Sandy Gas Shortages Hit
As the U.S. East coast copes with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and New York City breathes life back into its flooded 105-year old subway system, public transit is currently in short supply. News images of huge queues for gas, people queuing around the block for buses and tens of thousands...
Antony Ingram