Geely Backs Electrification of London’s Black Cabs

The company that manufactures London’s black cabs plans to turn the capital’s taxis all-electric.

Geely, the Chinese auto manufacturing group that owns the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is planning a big investment in LEVC to turn it into an all-electric brand, Reuters reported on Monday (Jan. 23).

“We need a developed product portfolio. We need to make big investments in terms of the technology and infrastructure,” LEVC Chief Executive Alex Nan said. The report said that the size of Geely’s investment would be disclosed later and would add to the £500 million Geely has already invested in LEVC.

For observers of Geely’s business strategy, the writing has been on the wall for some time, at least since the 2017 rebranding that saw the London Taxi Company become LEVC. Since then, the company has launched two new models, the TX and the VN5, both plug-in hybrids.

What’s more, as of Jan. 1, Transport for London (TfL) has not been licensing any new pure combustion-powered taxis in the city. It is also investing in taking the last remaining diesel-powered black cabs off the road with financial incentives for taxi drivers to trade in for newer electric vehicles.

While hybrids like the TX and the VN5 conform to TfL’s new zero-emissions rules, the general trajectory is toward the greater and greater electrification of London’s transport system, with an increasingly small place for the internal combustion engine on the city’s roads going forward.

Already, TfL has reported that more than 40% of the 6,000-plus black cabs operating in London are now capable of not producing any emissions from their exhausts.

For its part, the ride-hailing platform Uber revealed this month (Jan. 11) that London is leading the world as it electrifies its global fleet.

The company said that 15% of on-trip miles are now electric in the city, ahead of the 7.1% average it reports across London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, Madrid, and Paris.

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