Nissan Evalia chosen as the new London black cab

London’s streets, which have been used to seeing the bug-eyed, old school black cabs with the glowing ‘Taxi’ light on top, will soon see a new, yet familiar car doing the cabbie duties. The Nissan Evalia, or the NV200 as the boring European markets call it, has been chosen as the new London black cab. The Nissan people carrier replaces the London Taxi TX4, which was introduced in the UK back in 2006.

The Evalia / NV200 brings larger cabin space to the table with comfortable seating for five (three + two jump seats) passengers and even more space for the cargo. The front passenger seat too has been removed to contribute to this effect. The vehicle continues to use the sliding doors that we saw on the Evalia at the 2012 Auto Expo, which enable easy ingress and egress. In fact, the NV200 black cab complies with the handicap regulations as well.

The Nissan NV200 will use the same 1.5-litre K9K diesel engine that powers the Nissan Sunny in India. It produces close to 90 PS of power and over 200 Nm of torque. But what has cut the cake for the NV200 is the 18 kmpl fuel economy and the 50 percent lesser CO2 emissions as compared to the older London cabs. The Nissan cab will be significantly cheaper than the other cabs too.

Thanks to its space and comfort, the Nissan Evalia / NV200 was also chosen as the preferred cab in New York last year. The people carrier will now make its entry into our country too in a few weeks from now in the form of the India-spec Evalia – which aims to sit between the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the Toyota Innova.