The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission proposal to have an exclusive, iconic taxi has been voided by the Manhattan State Supreme Court, just weeks before Nissan Motor Co Ltd was due to start active taxi sales with their NV200 model.
10-year Contract
In 2011 Nissan announced they had won an estimated $1billion contract in the “Taxi of Tomorrow” initiative, which was set to take effect from October 28 this year. The project is shceduled to run for the next 10 years and would require every taxi for sale from this date to be a Nissan NV200.
Judge Shlomo Hagler, of the Justice Court, ruled that the Taxi and Limousine Commission had violated the Council’s authority.
He commented: “The notion that New York City should have one exclusive ‘iconic’ New York City taxicab is a policy decision that is reserved for the City Council”.
Commission Appeal
Nissan Motor Co Ltd spokesman, Travis Parman, said the ruling would not deter them from continuing to improve the New York taxi market.
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision but it will not prevent our plan to start upgrading the NYC taxi fleet with the Nissan Taxi of Tomorrow at the end of the month,” he said.
The city’s chief lawyer, Michael Cardozo, also commented on the decision, noting: “We believe the Court’s decision is fundamentally wrong and we intend to appeal immediately.”
The court case was initiated by the principal of the largest taxi fleet in New York City, Evgeny Freidman, who felt that the commission did not have the rights to enforce a monopoly and take away the operators’ freedom of choice.