Karsan Taxi Benefits
After analyzing New York City’s request for its Taxi of Tomorrow, Karsan concluded that the only feasible way to meet the City’s rigorous technical requirements was with a purpose-built vehicle specially designed to be a taxi, rather than by retrofitting an existing regular production model car or van to adapt to taxi needs. This approach follows the historic pattern of New York’s most beloved taxi, the Checker, whose celebrated attributes largely resulted from its custom design.
The Karsan V1 offers passengers, drivers, taxi owners, and the public compelling benefits:
ICONIC
- Once again, the NewYork taxi will have a distinctive design that will stand out on New York’s streets and be readily recognized the world over as a new image of the City. Each Karsan taxi will also have a panoramic glass roof offering passengers an unobstructed vista of the City’s vertical landscape as they drive through New York’s skyscrapers, returning a popular feature of the City’s taxis of a half-century ago.
COMFORTABLE
- The Karsan passenger area will be dramatically larger than any existing taxi, larger even than the historic standard of roominess set by the classic Checker, with enormous knee and leg room, ensuring that passengers can sit comfortably without pressing against the back of the driver’s seat. This will deal with the greatest complaint of today’s passengers about the 16 different taxi models now in use, all of which are adaptations with cramped passenger space. The passenger area will also have a comfortable jump seat (another return to the Checker tradition), enabling four to sit easily together, plus room for a wheelchair, bicycles, stroller, luggage or packages. In addition, the driver has a specially designed area to meet the needs of a long shift, including a high-comfort, suspension seat, storage compartments and a cooler for food and beverages.
ACCESSIBLE
- New York today has fewer than 300 taxis (out of a fleet of 13,000 automobiles) that have been retrofitted to be wheelchair accessible. In addition, the City and State governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Access-A-Ride programs to transport those in wheelchairs or otherwise needing assistance. Every Karsan taxi would have a factory-installed automated ramp providing wheelchair access from the curb on either side directly into the passenger area, where the wheelchair passenger would comfortably sit along with the other passengers. Wide doors opening to 90 degrees and extra height will make it easy for the elderly and disabled. The Karsan taxi would make New York City the world leader in accessibility, with the only taxi fleet that is fully wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant. Indeed, the V1 would be the first ever ADA compliant automobile that is factory built.
SUSTAINABLE
- The Karsan taxi is designed with an easily accessible rear engine box that can readily adapt to ongoing changes in technology, rapidly switching to the most efficient and sustainable engine available. This allows the engine to be quickly and cost-effectively modified to conform to the City’s preference for electric, compressed gas, hybrid or other advanced power system; to take advantage of the city’s evolving environmental infrastructure so that New York’s taxi fleet can maintain world sustainability leadership without undue cost to the owners.
DURABLE
- The Karsan taxi will use an advanced power train, ensuring reliability and efficiency, and has been designed for the wear and tear of New York’s rugged streets and extreme weather. It has low maintenance costs, including easily replaced pre-painted body panels that are less expensive and quicker to install than the molded sections of today’s regular production taxi models, reducing down time for repairs and expense.
