Volkswagen Car Made the Coolest Taxis Cleanest too

14 March 2011 - Electric cars that are driven with zero emissions will revolutionise mobility over the mid-term, especially in urban areas. However, Volkswagen is not just thinking of individual mobility in the style of the future Golf blue-e-motion, but is also considering its possibilities as a vehicle in public transportation.

That is why Volkswagen is now showing just how a mass-produced taxi driven by an electric motor might look. After the world premiere of the Milano Taxi of the same design, the Volkswagen Berlin Taxo Concept car was created as a second city van tailored to the needs of taxi drivers and their passengers. It features many innovative details such as a forward-opening sliding door and customisable taxi touch screens.

The design team decided that ''One door less offers even more in a taxi,' 'and this had a crucial influence on the vehicle's technical and visual concept even before the first pen stroke was made. This is a good feature: The safest way for passengers to enter and exit a taxi in city traffic is on the sidewalk side. And that is why the development crew sent the Volkswagen Berlin Taxi on its way with just a single sliding door that open far forward on the passenger's side.Thanks to the development of an entirely new mechanism with two-axis kinematics, this door opens wide to offer a broad entrance.The sliding door extends well into the roof, so it also offers an enormous opening in terms of height. Apropos:The Volkswagen Berlin Taxi Concept is 1.60 metres tall, 3.73 metres long-or more accurately short, and 1.66 metres wide.

The Volkswagen Berlin Taxi is still a pure concept vehicle. Yet, with its styling that bears similarities to the legendary Volkswagen Samba bus, zero -emissions drive system and very tangible, practical benefits of a compact space wonder, it could very quickly become a highly coveted vehicle in cities like Berlin or Milan, New York, Bejing, Cape Town, London, Moscow or Tokyo.