London's iconic black cab, also known as the hackney coach, is set to retire after five decades of dutiful service. And its replacement has all the charm and charisma of a festering boil.
We can look past the fact it's not a cab, but a van done up like a cab. And badly, at that. It starts with the Nissan NV200 multi-purpose cargo van that New Yorkers know as the Taxi of Tomorrow and the people of Barcelona and Tokyo know as a taxi. Instead of the iconic yellow paint of the hacks roaming New York, London's version gets the traditional black paint along with a low-profile lighted taxi sign on the roof and a spacious cabin.
So far, so good. But it all falls apart when you get a good look at that schnoz. Nissan's European design center attempted to meld the classic front end of the hackney to the modern, boxy shape of the NV200. The round, LED headlamps and massive chrome grille look like they were tacked on by a company making Chinese knock-offs of ye olde coach. What's worse, the design was selected from dozens of concepts, including several that were nixed after consulting the mayor's office, cabbies, and Londoners polled on the street. This is the best they could come up with – a shame, considering Nissan Design Europe can make awesome stuff like the wonderfully weird Nissan Juke.
The new cabs are set to start ferrying passengers in December. A fully electric version built off the e-NV200 arrives in 2015.
