NEW YORK (AP) -- It looks like something you'd see on a suburban cul-de-sac, not inching through Times Square. A boxy minivan made by Nissan will be the next iconic yellow cab in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday.
The model, selected from among three finalists in a city competition, is designed so that it could eventually be updated with an electric engine. The city is exploring the possibility of ultimately replacing the city's entire fleet of more than 13,000 taxis with vehicles powered by electricity.
Bloomberg conceded at a City Hall news conference that the minivan - which offers extra passenger legroom and enough trunk space for the luggage of four people - might make some think of suburbia, but he said the distinctive yellow paint job will make them New York icons.
The minivan features a panoramic overhead window that will give tourists a view of the city's skyscrapers and onboard outlets and charging stations that will allow professionals to treat the cabs as mobile offices. With such amenities, city Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky said he believed the vehicles could become as beloved as the Checker cabs of yesteryear.
"Not a week goes by when somebody doesn't say to me, 'Why can't you bring back the Checker?'" he said. "The cars that are on the road today just have not generated the same type of affection and passenger loyalty."
The anchor of the city's current fleet of more than 13,200 taxis is Ford's Crown Victoria, which was recently discontinued.
The Nissan van, which beat out proposals from Ford Motor Co. and Turkey's Karsan, will be phased in beginning in 2013 as older taxis age out of service. All current taxis, including the city's hybrid cabs, will be off the streets by 2018.
Although the city was not legally allowed to make its decision based on fuel efficiency, Nissan's vehicles would double efficiency to 25 miles per gallon from the Crown Victoria's 12 to 13 miles per gallon, the mayor said. The Nissan was the most fuel efficient and the cheapest of the three finalists, and is expected to cost about $29,000 - with an anticipated $1 billion in total sales.
The new models will be the first city taxicabs to offer passenger airbags and to go through crash testing with equipment such as the driver's partition already installed. Doors will slide open sideways, eliminating the possibility of opening a door into an oncoming bicyclist or automobile.
And passengers will no longer have to cope with drivers who say they don't know how to get to out-of-the-way destinations, because every car will be equipped with a GPS system, the mayor said.
Some local officials said they were unhappy with the final selection and questioned why the Karsan model wasn't chosen after the automaker pledged to build the vehicles in Brooklyn. Bloomberg said that getting approval for an automotive plant in the city and building such a facility within the two-year limit wasn't feasible, and he said Karsan didn't have enough U.S. experience to satisfy the city that it could follow through on its plans.
Ford had planned to build its vehicles overseas, while Nissan plans to build them in Mexico then put final touches on them at a New York City-area facility. About 70 percent of Nissan vehicles sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S., according to the automaker.
Picking the Karsan model would have made all the city's taxis wheelchair accessible, and advocates for the disabled protested in front of City Hall on Tuesday. Bloomberg said that a new program would allow riders in wheelchairs to call for properly equipped taxicabs, and taxi owners could opt to pay extra to buy a wheelchair-accessible version of the Nissan vehicle.
City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio called for an investigation into the selection process, saying that a consultant hired by the city to help evaluate automakers' proposals had previously worked for Nissan and for Ford. The mayor denied there was any conflict of interest.
A Ford spokesman said the company would continue to work with New York. Karsan said it would work to bring its proposal to other cities.
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