London EV Company Limited (LEVC, formerly The London Taxi Corporation Limited trading as The London Taxi Company) is a British automotive electric vehicle manufacturer with its headquarters at Ansty near

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

, England, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese automaker

Geely Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd (ZGH), commonly known as Geely (吉利 "auspicious"), is a Chinese multinational automotive company headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The company is privately held by Chinese billionaire entrepreneur ...

. The company is responsible for the electrical conversion of London’s famous black taxicabs.

History

Geely's involvement in British taxicab production began in 2006 when it partnered with LEVC's predecessor

The London Taxi Company The London Taxi Company was a Hackney carriage, taxi design and manufacturing company based in Coventry, England. It formerly traded as London Taxis International and Carbodies. It operated a coachbuilding business on Holyhead Road, Covent ...

, and its parent

Manganese Bronze Holdings Manganese Bronze Holdings plc (MBH) was the holding company of LTI Limited. The firm's sole business in its final years as a company was London black taxicab manufacturing through the LTI subsidiary. The Manganese Bronze and Brass Co was fou ...

, in the creation of a China-based taxicab manufacturing joint venture. In 2008, Geely considered the possibility of converting London's black cabs into electric-powered vehicles. In 2009 Geely bought shares in Manganese Bronze Holdings. In 2012 Manganese Bronze Holdings entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

due to lack of funding. In 2013 Geely rescued part of the business and created its own taxicab production company as ''The London Taxi Corporation Limited''. The joint venture, Shanghai LTI Automobile Components Co Ltd, makes the TX4, a licensed London Black Cab, in Fengjing, Shanghai, and exports semi-complete

knock-down kit A knock-down kit (also knockdown kit, knocked-down kit, or simply knockdown or KD) is a collection of parts required to assemble a product. The parts are typically manufactured in one country or region, then exported to another country or region ...

s for assembly in the UK. From 2014, Geely invested £480m in LEVC to develop a new taxi. In March 2015, LEVC announced a new factory and offices would be built at Ansty Park, northeast of

at a cost of £90m, creating 1,000 jobs. Geely hoped to manufacture 36,000 vehicles per annum. In 2017, the company launched the new LEVC TX electric hybrid taxi and announced its intentions to begin production of electric commercial vehicles in addition to taxicabs.

Models

TX

Geely had been in talks over the possibility of converting London's black cabs into electric-powered vehicles. The company said it has held talks with UK government officials about the plan. The TX range extender electric vehicle is built at a new facility near Ansty, northeast of Coventry. By April 2022, over 5,000 TX's has been sold in London, around a third of London's taxi fleet.

VN5

An electric van was revealed by LEVC on 17 June 2019, and will be available to order in the second half of 2020. In March 2020, LEVC confirmed that the new van would be called LEVC VN5.

References

External links

* {{Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2013 British companies established in 2013 British subsidiaries of foreign companies 2013 establishments in England