Last year, New York City announced that they were looking for a new fleet of taxis to replace the outgoing Crown Vics. As the traditional cab had become a symbol for the City, as modes of transportation usually are (think of the Underground in London, the Cable Car in San Francisco, the Subway in NYC), finding a replacement proved to be quite the challenge. Nissan was up for the challenge, presenting the Nissan NV200 to the convened group of City officials, livery company owners, and residents as the "Taxi of Tomorrow." This fall, the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) announced that they chose the Nissan as the next-gen NYC cab.

There's more exciting news where that came from, too. While the NV200 vans won't start hitting the streets until 2013, as of this spring, six Nissan LEAF EVs will join the city's fleet. As part of the "Taxi of Tomorrow" initiative, TLC decided to do a little experiment to see just how practical an EV taxicab would be.

Applications to be a part of the program starting rolling in last month, and chosen participants will get a free lease for up to one year, and a taxi medallion for operation. They will be expected to pick passengers up and operate as normal, all while sending feedback to Nissan and TLC throughout the program.

Of course this poses a lot of questions - which is exactly the point. Like, how practical is stopping to charge every 62-138 miles? Can the city install more charging stations? What about fast charging stations? After all, the life of a taxi driver in NYC is fast-paced and hectic, what better way to test the merits of an all-electric cab?

We think it's well-worth the effort. After all, 27 percent of our greenhouse emissions can be attributed to fossil-fuel combustion in gas- and diesel-powered transportation. With a fleet of 13,000 taxis in NYC, as of today, only 4,500 of them feature hybrid powertrains. Needless to say, we're excited to see this program develop as both Nissan and NYC work toward cleaner transportation in the United States.

Be sure to stay tuned with us, Connel Nissan, for more on this and other developments from the automaker. Want to learn more about what you can do to shrink your carbon footprint? Stop into our showroom, located at 2850 Harbor Blvd Costa Mesa, CA 92626, we're happy to give you a tour of the entire new Nissan lineup, including the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the fuel efficient 2012 Altima and Juke.