An iconic taxi for Paris
London has black cabs, New York has yellow cabs. Paris has…?
Paris used to have an iconic taxi of it’s own – the so-called Taxi de la Marne. That was before World War I.
What if Paris decided to clean up it’s act of not having an iconic taxi and at the same time clean up the air in the city by making the Citroën eCV concept the official taxi for Paris?
In order to visualize this I modified the Citroën eCV concept by adding a driver and a indicator light on the roof showing taxi availability.
To finish it all of I added the official coat-of-arms for Paris to the trunk:
some observations
I decided to dive into a bit of Parisian history and I found that Paris actually did have a unique taxi at one point. Prior to the 1st world war the Renault AG1 car was used as the de-facto taxi in Paris.
After WWI broke out the French army commandeered all the AG1 taxis to be used in the battle de la Marne giving the taxi it’s nickname: Taxi de la Marne
This observation comes from a trip to Paris one year ago.
While walking the streets of Paris it occurred to me that when it comes to taxis the French capital does not really have an ‘icon’. London has the famous black cabs, New York has iconic yellow cabs and even Tokyo, for better or worse, has the Toyota Crown comfort.
Paris on the other hand has an eclectic offering of car brands with a simple ‘Taxi Parisien’ sign slapped on the roof. Not iconic at all.
about me
My name is Martin Hajek. I used to be an industrial designer. Want to know why I came up with the Citroën eCV? Read the FAQ!
This observation comes from a trip to Paris one year ago.
While walking the streets of Paris it occurred to me that when it comes to taxis the French capital does not really have an ‘icon’. London has the famous black cabs, New York has iconic yellow cabs and even Tokyo, for better or worse, has the Toyota Crown comfort.
Paris on the other hand has an eclectic offering of car brands with a simple ‘Taxi Parisien’ sign slapped on the roof.
Not iconic at all.
I decided to dive into a bit of Parisian history and I found that Paris actually did have a unique taxi at one point. Prior to the 1st world war the Renault AG1 car was used as the de-facto taxi in Paris.
After WWI broke out the French army commandeered all the AG1 taxis to be used in the battle de la Marne giving the taxi it’s nickname; Taxi de la Marne
image gallery
click on the thumbnail images to enlarge them
(r)evolution of the user interface
the main display of the Citroën eCV
Designing the Citroën eCV extended all the way to the look-and-feel of the user interface.
When you consider that modern electric cars swap a traditional dashboard for, what is effectively an oversized iPad, the UI and UX design is very important.
By placing the display in the back of the seat it provides the passenger(s) with easy acces to information about their destination, the cost and how much longer the trip is expected to take.
By placing the display in the back of the seat it provides the passenger(s) with easy acces to information about their destination, the cost and how much longer the trip is expected to take.
image gallery
click on the thumbnail images to enlarge them
image gallery
click on the thumbnail images to enlarge them
360o interactive panorama
image gallery
click on the thumbnail images to enlarge them
about me
My name is Martin Hajek and I live in the Netherlands. I used to work in industrial design and I am an iF design and Red Dot design award winner. Nowadays I work as business development manager and in my spare time I like to tinker with 3D-modelling and rendering.
Want to reach out to me? Send me an email or follow me online!
FAQ
Want to know more about this project? Why I did it? How long it took? Click here to read the FAQ!