If you’ve ever been to New York City, you’ve definitely seen a New York City taxi cab. The bright yellow paint is synonymous with Times Square and the Empire State Building, but there’s a surprising amount of variety when it comes to the cars themselves.
These days, you can see cabs on the streets of New York ranging from boring Camrys to Tesla Model 3s to Nissan’s NV200, a van once dubbed the “taxi of tomorrow,” introduced in 2012 to take over the NYC taxi scene (which didn’t exactly work out). That didn’t stop The Autopian from buying one with 375,000 miles on the clock and driving it across the country.
With the city’s mandate to have all taxis either wheelchair-accessible or all-electric by 2030, Kia and BraunAbility, an Indiana-based business that converts vans to be wheelchair-accessible, have come up with something that meets both requirements: an electric minivan with space for a wheelchair-bound passenger in the back.
A Match Perfect For NYC
If you keep a close eye on New York City traffic for long enough, you’ll inevitably start seeing yellow-painted Toyota Siennas with curiously high ride heights and awkward-looking tailgates out back. That’s because BraunAbility has modified the rear to become a deployable ramp so that people in wheelchairs can get into the car without having to get out of their seats.
Here’s a video of how it works in the Sienna, which is BraunAbility’s most popular model right now:
While the Sienna works just fine for this type of work, there’s certainly room for improvement. Enter the PV5, a five-door electric minivan introduced by Kia in 2024 and put on sale overseas last year. As it turns out, the PV5’s upright, square shape is excellent for transporting wheelchair-bound passengers, according to Jake Craig, senior national account manager for BraunAbility.
“The PV5 is an amazing platform to begin with,” Craig told me at the New York Auto Show. “It’s got vertical walls. For the driver, you’ll have a cab-over type of vision. The turning radius is very quick, [and] your breakover, departure, and approach angles are amazing.
“In New York City, sometimes you have steep driveways, so for wheelchair accessible vehicles, especially with the ramp in the rear, sometimes that can become an area that may drag. [The PV5] is actually seven inches shorter than the Sienna, which is a very popular option for New York City Taxi today. But there’s a lot of space inside, vertical walls and cab forward [design] have created more interior space.”
Craig went on to tell me how the converted cargo space is wider and longer than the Sienna, allowing them to install a wider ramp that can be installed flat on the floor when not in use (versus the Sienna, where the ramp stays vertical with the hatch, restricting storage space). The straps that hold the wheelchair to the car are also integrated into the floor, streamlining the process for getting wheelchaired passengers belted.
Will It Become A Reality?
Being fully electric and a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV), this PV5 taxi concept feels like an ideal solution for New York’s taxi fleet going forward. Whether it’ll actually happen is another story.
Craig told me that this concept PV5 taxi, which is fully functional as a WAV-compliant cab, was developed to gauge interest from government officials, fleets, and riders.
“We had private reviews of the vehicle, and that was to get the feedback from direct stakeholders. The disability community, the environmental advocate groups, the city, and the stakeholders who could potentially operate this vehicle,” says Craig. “So some large fleets came and looked at it.”
Craig told me that feedback so far has been “very, very strong,” with some fleet operators already asking if they could place orders. Not only would the PV5 taxi be compliant with NYC’s upcoming EV mandate for cabs, but the less stringent maintenance schedules afforded by EVs also appealed to buyers.
Other operators, though, still had some concerns, due mostly to charging infrastructure, not the vehicle itself. “Charging infrastructure is one that comes up,” Craig says.
Whether the PV5 taxi isn’t up to BraunAbility, of course, it’s up to Kia. It can only be made possible if the company decides to develop a version that’s compliant with U.S. roadways, which hasn’t happened yet. But there is some hope.
The concept itself showing up in New York during the Auto Show at Kia’s booth is a strong indicator that the company is at least considering importing the PV5 for American roadways. Moreover, Car and Driver spotted a PV5 test mule equipped with U.S.-spec side marker lights and reflectors driving around on Michigan roadways last month.
Non-U.S.-market cars are tested Stateside all the time, of course, so this isn’t conclusive evidence. It’s very likely the company is gauging interest from BraunAbility’s customers and its own buyer base to see if there’s a viable market, using the Auto Show as a stage.
As a NYC resident, I’d be very happy to see our taxis become tall, alien-looking electric Kia vans – if not only because I could buy one wholesale with 400,000 miles on the clock one day.
Top graphic images: Brian Silvestro
Didn’t you bother us enough with that stupid taxi roadtrip that ate up way too much space that could have been used for some kind of car that was remotely interesting? I’m still sour you didn’t choose the Mercedes Camino or really, anything else.
Tesla: “We are designing the cab of the future! It has two doors and is incapable of being used by people with disabilities!”
Kia and BraunAbility: “Shhhhhh….. the grown ups are talking….”
My friend has a Braun-converted Honda Odyssey. Retail price was north of $80k. This stuff ain’t cheap, but if vans got modified in-factory, they’d be cheaper.
The number and scale of the changes required to convert the vans are such that I doubt this is true.
Or even if it is, the compromises to the “regular” van to allow it to be built on the same assembly line as the ramp van would introduce all sorts of undesirable side effects.
All for this.
On another note, I feel like Autopian should do an article on the accessibility conversions out there and companies (all 2 big ones at least)
NYC taxis are a luxury for rich people too dumb to figure out the Metro.
for a wheelchair user I can see preferring a taxi over the metro. Transferring between trains while having to worry about if the elevators aren’t working would be an added level of frustration.
Taxis are also a necessity for people who find it at challenge to get to and from the nearest Metro station. Just because you can walk does not mean you can walk a 1/2 mile.
If only there were a comprehensive bus system.
I guess that makes me a rich guy with an aversion to bum piss and sweaty strangers. I CAN use the subway just fine (I did when I was young and poor), I just don’t need or want to. Today I mostly just avoid the place unless it’s work nobody else in the company can do.
They are about 200mm longer then a transit connect and 900mm shorter then the shortest transit so the cargo version might be a winner for replacing all many of those for fleets. Especially if you figure they sticker under $35k.
I never realized it until now but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Sedona/Carnival as a wheelchair van. Every other brand yes but not Kia. I wonder why that is?
Likely have to sell enough to warrant Braun making the engineering investment.
The Caravan and Sienna are/were great choices because they both had maaaany model years without significant changes. Making their engineering pay dividends for over a decade in some cases without much or any revision.
Availability was where my mind went too.
It seemed like converted Siennas started popping up more later in the 2nd gen models, but Odysseys didn’t really start until the 2010s with 4th gens. I could see Toyota having pursued it more than Honda though too initially.
Braun’s primary business has been Chrysler products for many years. The extended run of the RT and RU van models were godsends for this reason.
Quite a few converted Sedonas in the UK. Brotherwood (who I think started out making milk floats in a village near my home town) made them
I, for one, can’t wait to hear PV5.WAV playing it’s tune on NYC streets. I’m sure it’ll bring on a Torrent of praise!
Kia can design a car, easy to argue it’s one of the best in the game right now, and has been for almost a decade at this point.
But, my short experience with the Telluride showed they have a long way to go with reliability still. That was 4-5 years ago though. Will these run as long as the current crop? I’d be buying a couple to test out if I was a cab company owner and they were for sale.
Sell the PV5 and Staria over here, including to retail customers.
Why don’t these vans have factory wheelchair points like Renault does with the Kangoo?
In 40 years robotic bodied Jason will applaud the convenience of the ramp as he embarks on his latest cross-Jasonia trek.
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.
God, please. Not a second too soon.
Would need to be assembled in their us factories to have any hope of reasonable costs with all the tariff wars going onon. Importing it from Korea will not cut it even if the conversion is done stateside.
For that matter – Why couldn’t they be assembled and converted at the same factory?
Because if it’s good for NYC, it’s also good for Boston, DC, LA, SF, Chicago….
Please. The Siennas are awful to ride in. Every time I hail one (or get a WAV assigned on ride hail apps) I groan in disappointment.
I wonder if Kia, given the amount of stakeholder input, will design the sliding doors to handle people trying to pull them properly.
Cool! But it’ll be even cooler when The Autopian staff is cross-country road tripping a 300,000 mile one by reverse charging it with a BEV that Torch or Mercedes bought on Temu…
Forward thinking in all respects, to serve society in many respects.