The London EV Company aims to transform cabs worldwide.
The London Taxi Company, the manufacturer behind the namesake city’s iconic black cabs, has quite a lot of news to share today. Not only is it renaming itself to the ‘London Electric Vehicle Company’ (LEVC), but it’s also pulled the wraps off its finalised new black cab, dubbed the TX. With over $500-mil of investment from parent company Geely, LEVC aims to be the preferred urban commercial vehicle provider for cities across the globe.
“Today is an incredibly exciting day for the company, for the worlds’ cities, for the air we breathe and for the drivers of commercial vehicles. The launch of LEVC marks Britain’s leadership as a first-mover in creating the world’s only dedicated electric vehicle company for the urban commercial market.” – LEVC CEO Chris Gubby
The LEVC TX will take to London’s streets by the end of this year, packing a range-extender electric platform that enables travel of over 750km, with pure-electric zero-emissions range standing at a little over 100km. The combination of an electric powertrain fed by a small petrol motor makes up LEVC’s ‘eCity’ technology, developed by leveraging on experience and expertise from sister company Volvo.
“Our products will help transform city living, and provide taxi drivers with an average weekly fuel saving of £100 a week compared with our outgoing diesel model,” Gubby said. The LEVC TX will be launched before 2018, with the company finalising its quality and testing regime for the black cab, which has gone as far as Arizona and the Arctic Circle to test its extreme weather durability. LEVC isn’t relying solely on London though, as RMC of the Netherlands (one of the largest taxi operators there) has placed an initial order of 225 new TX cabs to be delivered next year.
The LEVC TX will be open to orders come August 1st.
