London EV Company Limited (LEVC), formerly The London Taxi Corporation Limited, is a British automotive manufacturer with its headquarters at

Ansty Park Ansty may refer to: Places in England * Ansty, Dorset (including Higher Ansty, Lower Ansty, Little Ansty and Ansty Cross) * Ansty, Warwickshire, village and civil parish ** Anstey College of Physical Education **RAF Ansty Royal Air Force Ansty ...

near

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, England. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese automaker

Geely Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (ZGH), commonly known as Geely Holding ( ; ), is a Chinese multinational automotive conglomerate headquartered in Hangzhou, China. The company was founded by, and is privately owned by Chinese entrepre ...

. The company produces London’s famous black taxicabs.

History

Geely's involvement in British taxicab production began in 2006 when it partnered with London EV Company's predecessor,

The London Taxi Company Carbodies was a taxi design and manufacturing company based in Coventry, England. In its latter years it also traded as London Taxis International and The London Taxi Company. It operated a coachbuilding business on Holyhead Road, Coventry. ...

, 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 foun ...

, 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: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

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, made the

TX4 The TX4 is a purpose-built taxicab (hackney carriage) manufactured by The London Taxi Corporation, The London Taxi Company, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile of China. From 2007 until their liquidation in 2013 it was manufactured by LTI Limited, ...

, a licensed London Black Cab, in

Fengjing, Shanghai Fengjing () is a town in Jinshan District, Shanghai. An ancient water town, it also has a new town with a Canadian theme and an industrial zone. It is a centre for Jinshan peasant painting. Fengjing has an area of , and had a registered populatio ...

, 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, and then exported to another country or r ...

s for assembly in the UK. From 2014, Geely invested £480m in LEVC to develop a new taxi. Much of the engineering is done by

China Euro Vehicle Technology Zeekr Technology Europe AB, formerly China Euro Vehicle Technology AB (CEVT), is the European automotive research and development centre of Zeekr. The company is located at the Geely Innovation Centre, in a 100,000 square meter building called Uni ...

, a Geely subsidiary based in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden. In March 2015, LEVC announced a new factory and offices would be built at

, 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 The LEVC TX (previously known as the TX5) is a purpose-built hackney carriage manufactured by the British commercial vehicle maker London EV Company (LEVC), a subsidiary of the Chinese carmaker Geely. It is the latest in a succession of purpose-b ...

range-extended electric taxi and announced its intentions to begin production of electric commercial vehicles in addition to taxicabs. In February 2025, LEVC was integrated into

Geely Galaxy Geely Galaxy () is a brand of Geely Auto, which is itself a subsidiary of Geely, Zhejiang Geely Holding. Unveiled in February 2023, Geely Galaxy specializes in new energy vehicles (plug-in hybrid and Battery electric vehicle, battery electric ve ...

dealership network in the Chinese market. Its sole model in China, the LEVC L380, was rebranded as the

Geely Galaxy LEVC L380 The LEVC L380 is an electric minivan produced by electric vehicle manufacturer London EV Company for the Chinese and British car markets. The vehicle was renamed to Geely Galaxy LEVC L380 () in the Chinese market in February 2025 due to the consol ...

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

, 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 In March 2020, LEVC confirmed that the new van would be called

LEVC VN5 The LEVC VN5 is a plug-in hybrid panel van produced since November 2020 by United Kingdom, British electric vehicle manufacturer London EV Company (LEVC), a subsidiary of Chinese automobile company Geely. The car was largely engineered by China E ...

. It went on sale in the UK in 2020 and in the rest of Europe the following year.

Geely Galaxy L380

LEVC revealed the L380 electric

people carrier The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a ...

for the Chinese market in December 2023. With a length of and up to 4 rows and 8 seats inside, the name and stylistic cues of the L380 are based on those of the

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus until 2021. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the pr ...

. Since February 2025, the vehicle has been renamed

LEVC L380 in China, following the consolidation of LEVC into Geely Galaxy's sales network.

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