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Future Cars Blog: Volvo City Taxi

2019-12-23 - Megan Russell

The Volvo Experimental Taxi This concept was built by Volvo in 1976 as their response to a public challenge from the New York office of Transportation and the Museum of Modern Art.

The Volvo Taxi was powered by a six-cylinder diesel engine and was front wheel drive. Instead of seat belts, the passenger seating was provided with a roller-coaster style pull-down bar.

One of the key features was the Volvo Taxi's ability to fit a wheelchair. "Rear seat, wheelchair. The impetus for this vehicle came when the Museum of Modern Art and a number of metropolitan transport organisations in New York invited carmakers to develop their own purpose-built big-taxi concepts." - Volvo Cars

Volvo's Concept Taxi is well documented through the Museum of Modern Art with a great detail in their publication on the project. Check out the project proposal:

Here is a link to the Volvo Taxi Prototype paperwork for the New York office of Transportation:

https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/5384/releases/MOMA_1976_0044_35a.pdf?2010