Nissan with its NV200 compact van has won the ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ contract which is worth 40,000 units in New York City alone over the next 10 years. Automakers usually jump at the chance of having their new vehicle appear in a major Hollywood movie and in this case we are talking a hundred movies. The company is obviously thrilled at having won the bid last year to be New York City’s exclusive taxi for 10 years. Beginning in late 2013, the entire New York City taxi fleet will be converting to Nissan’s people mover, which will replace the Ford Crown Victoria.

We hear that by contract, every new cab put on the street starting next year will be the NV200. It’s free marketing. It’s name awareness. It’s brand enhancement. “Think of  how many  movies you  see that are  made in New York, think of all the  New York street scenes you see, in movies, in television and imagine the streets filled with Nissan taxis”, the company’s executive has said.

Eventually,any scene in which the star hails a cab, crosses a Manhattan street, arrives at her apartment in a taxi will be Nissan’s NV200 taxi. For years to come movie scenes will be filled with Nissans and the Nissan logo and TV reruns and late-night “old movies” will be reminding viewers of the decade when Nissans filled the streets of New York.

via autoblog