Although its time in New York City fleets might be limited, the first examples of Ford’s Transit Connect Taxi are arriving on the streets of the Big Apple. The Transit Connect was one of three finalists in the city’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” campaign, but the Turkey-built MPV ultimately lost out to Nissan’s NV200.
Ford says more than 400 Transit Connect Taxis have been ordered for use in NYC, with the taxi’s total order count now at about 1,000 units. Although that figure might sound low, it’s actually a significant chunk of the 6,000 new taxis sold in the U.S. each year.
“Taxi operators are realizing the Transit Connect Taxi is a great vehicle and there’s a good reason – they helped us develop it,” said Len Deluca, director, Ford Commercial Trucks. “During product development, we visited cities across the U.S. speaking with taxi owners, operators, drivers and city officials on the key product attributes they wanted in a taxi.”
However, Ford’s potential in the New York market is now limited. After dominating the taxi market with its Crown Victoria, New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission selected the Nissan NV200 van as its “Taxi of Tomorrow.” That gives Nissan the exclusive rights to the NY taxi market for 10 years starting in 2013.
Ford says it is also seeing strong demand in other parts of the country, though, with orders coming in from cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas.
