Nissan, GM and Ford agree to build hybrid taxis for NYC
 

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/07...-new-york-cit/
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...moves-forward/

Nissan Altima hybrids have joined the New York City taxi fleet:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/07...ty-taxi-fleet/

I'd be curious to see how they hold up and if they do as well as the 18 Ford Escape hybrids which racked up up 175K miles each in 1.5 years w/no major problems (http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/05...-taxi-success/).

Re: Nissan, GM and Ford agree to build hybrid taxis for NYC
 

I expect they'll hold up reasonably well, from a cost and maintenance perspective. What I'd be concerned about is the trunk space, which strikes me as a real drawback in a taxi. On the other hand, it makes sense (in a market like NYC) that not every cab would need a large cargo capacity - you could have specialized vehicles for that.