NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg
February 18, 2013 in EV Star of the Week
Nissan all-electric E-NV200
Photo courtesy of Nissan
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the star of the week. Mr. Bloomberg announced at the State of the City last week that NYC will act as a “national leader” in the adoption of electric vehicles. Mr. Bloomberg has been a very successful business man, a successful mayor, and now we look forward to his success with planning and developing electric vehicle adoption.
All-electric E-NV200 Van with FedEX graphics and logos
Photo courtesy of Nissan
Nissan LEAFs will be the first six all-electric taxis for NYC, arriving in the spring, and the city is likely to add all-electric Nissan E-NV200 vans to the taxi service as these vehicles become available. The city needs to more fully develop its charging infrastructure to make that a reality.
The LEAFs are being manufactured domestically out of Smyrna Tennessee, and the E-NV200 vans are being manufactured in Barcelona Spain. Nissan has other business possibilities ahead as demonstrated in this photo of an E-NV200 with FedEx logo. Mayor Bloomberg certainly understands the potential.
The Mayor stated in his speech:
This year we’ll pilot curbside vehicle chargers that will allow drivers to fill up their battery in as little as 30 minutes as opposed to the normal 8 hours. We’ll work with the City Council to amend the Building Code so that up to 20 percent of all new public parking spaces in private developments will be wired and ready for electric vehicles, creating up to 10,000 parking spots for electric vehicles over the next seven years. We’ll add 50 more electric vehicles to the city’s fleet of cars, and we’ll put the first six fully electric taxis on the road – with the goal of making one-third of our taxi fleet electric by 2020.