Taxi Driver Online

London Taxi Company's electric cab to hit the road this year

LTC’s next model will be a range-extended electric vehicle; latest pictures show it's into the latter stage of development

The London Taxi Company (LTC) will launch its new electric cab in the final quarter of this year, ahead of Transport For London (TFL) legislation that all new cabs must be ‘zero-emission capable’ range of at least 30 miles.

The company has released images of the model undergoing winter testing inside the Arctic Circle, signaling that it's now in the final stages of development. The electric taxi is LTC's most comprehensively tested model to date.

LTC quality director Wolfram Liedtke said: "Our new taxi is being developed with two key engineering principles – quality and endurance – to meet the needs of the demanding taxi duty cycle. We are now nearing the end of our development programme and will soon commit the product to series production at our all-new manufacturing facility in Ansty, near Coventry.”

The new cab will adopt a range-extended electric set-up much like those of the Vauxhall Ampera and BMW i3 Range Extender. The news follows Autocar’s story of a range-extended delivery van, which will be built alongside the new taxi model.

TFL will introduce the ‘zero-emission capable’ legislation on 1 January 2018. Production of the new electric taxi will begin once work has finished on LTC’s new purpose-built plant in Coventry later this year. LTC is due to open its new facility on 22 March following a £300 million investment by parent company Geely.

LTC is keeping quiet about the finer details of the EV taxi, saying only that the range "exceeds requirements comfortably". A final figure will be determined when testing concludes.

LTC CEO Peter Johansen said last year that one fill-up per day would be needed for the range-extending petrol generator. “A taxi driver will do 150-200 miles in a day, so the idea is the driver will top-up once during the day and travel the whole day on electric power.”

Johansen also clarified the necessity for a range-extender rather than a traditional battery EV, citing recharging times and the lack of a fast-charge infrastructure as contributory factors for the traditional battery EV’s incompatibility with taxi use. He also revealed that since Geely, which also owns Volvo, acquired the London Taxi Company in 2013, Geely chairman Li Shufu's aim has been to build an electrified taxi.

Johansen also noted that the current investment in infrastructure isn’t enough to cope with demand, although London has been rapidly increasing the number of fast chargers in the city in recent months.

Johansen believes the new powertrain would go down well with London cabbies. “The cabbies are very very enthusiastic,” he said. "I talk to a number of them regularly and they can’t wait to have a new cab to take the green initiative."

Like it or not, cabbies will have no choice but to adopt the range-extender LTC model once the TFL legislation takes place at the beginning of 2018. 

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-c ... -road-year

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

That's better, but still not good enough.

Uber will have a field day at Heathrow covering the longer distance work the black cabs can't do.

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IDFIMH

I have driven more than 400 miles in a day, so how the hell will the guys who are forced to buy one cope, if they get a long run, its already been proved by james may that the BMW1 cannot achieve what they claim

at a discount obviously

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

there you go skippy golden opportunity for you to export your services once Scotland becomes an independant country

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector