The electric London Taxi cab to be manufactured in Coventry by Chinese firm Geely
Chinese automotive manufacturing company Geely have announced their intention to build the electric London taxi cab at a brand new factory in the village of Ansty, Coventry, at a total cost of £330million.
The news comes as a massive boost to the UK automotive industry and will be the first new car factory in Britain for a decade.
The black electric London taxi cabs will be manufactured by Geely, who in the process have created 1,000 jobs and pledge to invest another £30million.
The electric London Taxi cab to be manufactured in Coventry by Chinese firm Geely © Copyright Stephen McKay and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The brand new car factory will also build an electric van as well as being responsible for producing the world’s first ever purpose-built electric taxi cab, in a bid to discontinue the use of diesel vehicles.
With the addition of the electric van venture, another 500 jobs could be created and a further £30 million of investment needed.
The total number of electric vehicles manufactured at the new plant could peak at around 36,000 per year.
Up to now, 600 people have been employed to work on the new TX5 electric taxi and a further 400 jobs are in the pipeline as production begins at the Ansty car plant on the new black London cab.
The new Coventry plant is powered by solar panels and is the size of five football pitches.
“This factory will be a world beater. We’re very upbeat about it. It’s a national treasure. Today marks the rebirth of the London Taxi Company,” said Chris Gubbey, Chief Executive of the London Taxi Company.
The opening of the new plant will be attended by Transport Minister John Hayes and Business Secretary Greg Clark.
Grants of around £7,500 are expected to be offered by the Government and Transport for London via the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, which will provide help for taxi drivers when purchasing one of the ‘green’ taxi cabs.
The London Taxi Company are not just looking to our capital city for sales and have already carried out trials in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Oslo and Paris. Hong Kong and Singapore in the Far East have also been targeted by the company.
All new taxi cabs in the capital must be pollution free as of January 2018 and produce zero-emissions.
There’s around 22,500 black cabs in London and by 2020 half of these will be electric, as the capital looks to phase out the current diesel ones.
The company says that sales to other cities in the UK that also use black cabs, which includes Coventry where the new electric taxi cabs are to be made, will provide them with additional new customers.
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