London Electric Vehicle Company


London EV Company Limited is an automotive engineering company with its headquarters near Coventry, England, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese automaker Geely. The company is famous for its London black taxicabs.

History

Geely's involvement in British taxicab production dated to 2006 when it partnered with LEVC's predecessor The London Taxi Company, and its parent Manganese Bronze Holdings, in the creation of a China-based taxicab manufacturing joint venture. In 2009 Geely bought shares in Manganese Bronze Holdings.
In 2012 Manganese Bronze Holdings entered administration 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.
In 2015 Geely announced plans to build a new £250 million plant for the London Taxi Company in Ansty Park near Coventry, with production planned to start at the new site in 2017.
The company launched the new LEVC TX electric taxi in 2017 and announced its intentions to begin production of electric commercial vehicles in addition to taxicabs.

Electric taxi

Geely had been in talks over the possibility of converting London's black cabs into electric-powered vehicles. The company said it had held talks with UK government officials about the plan. In May 2016, it was reported that they had secured £275 million for the project, which aims to manufacture 36,000 vehicles per year at its new Coventry, UK plant. The TX range extender electric vehicle will be made at a new facility near Ansty, northeast of Coventry.

Electric van

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.