Nissan’s Taxi of Tomorrow hails wary New Yorkers with scents and sensibility

Arriving in 2013, this Nissan van will replace the departed Ford Crown Victoria as New York City's official yellow taxi, with 13,000 expected to fill the streets within five years. Nissan's calling it the Taxi of Tomorrow, and wooing the 600,000 New Yorkers who hail a cab every day with vows of a ride that fits a digital world rather than the Vic's vinyl.

Last year, New York's taxi commission chose the Nissan design — a variation of its NV200 van — over a Turkish company and Ford, which had pitched a version of its Transit Connect van. Being New York, the choice sparked immediate opposition; the Nissan will be built in Mexico, while the Transit Connect was slated to come from a U.S. factory, and and a federal judge has ordered the city to make any new taxis handicapped accessible, which Nissan says will be possible with an add-on kit when the taxis arrive.