Taxi Driver Online

Fanfare for new electric London taxi plant launched tomorrow

Tomorrow’s (Wednesday 22 March) launch of a new state of the art plant in the West Midlands to produce the world-famous London taxi is ‘a great turnaround success story’, Unite, the country’s largest union, said.

The £300 million investment by the Chinese company Geely will see the emphasis at the new site at Ansty, near Coventry, on the TX5 electric taxi with the goal of producing 5,000 such vehicles by 2019.

Unite said that what had happened over the last four years was ‘one of the great comeback stories in UK manufacturing history’.

In 2013, the London Taxi Company was ‘on the brink’ after going into administration before the Zhejing Geely Holding Group stepped in to rescue the firm.

Since then, the workforce has risen from 150 to the current figure of 450 with the expectation that 1,000 will be employed at Ansty by 2020. 

Unite regional officer Peter Coulson said: “This a fantastic story of a company that was on its knees in 2013; now thanks to the commitment of Geely’s top management and accompanying large-scale investment the iconic London taxi is set for its continued renaissance.

“Tribute should also be paid to the dedicated workforce who have worked hard and diligently to contribute to the current success. 

“This is fantastic news in terms of highly skilled jobs for our members and the future creation of employment opportunities. It will be a wonderful boost to the West Midlands economy.

“Unite has worked very closely and successfully with the company to contribute to this success story which is one of the great comebacks in Britain’s long industrial history.

“Geely sees great potential for the iconic London taxi which is famous across the world with its cameo appearances at the 2012 London Olympics and in the James Bond film franchise. The company is already exporting to the Middle East and is eyeing up the Australian market.”
 
The production at the Ansty site is expected to start in May/June. The TX4, the traditional combustion engine taxi, will be run-down at its Coventry site over the next 12 months, depending on demand.

- See more at: http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/fanfa ... 0XDmW.dpuf

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

wouldn't have one free tbh, they are shit!

nobody has had an opportunity to drive one yet so isn't that a bit premature ?

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

I hope the electric version does well.

As I suspect do many people in London who like the idea of breathing.

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IDFIMH

Is it really thehacks causing all the pollution or the ever increasing numbers of uber and ph not forgetting the largest fleet of buses in Europe

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

It would be unkind to say all, but 20,000 LTI vehicles is enough to choke quite a few people.

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IDFIMH

you could replace every hack in london with an electric vehicle BUT only a small increase in the number of vehicles on the road there would wipe out the improvement. The only way to achieve clean air is to ban all but electric vehicles from the central area which would probably annoy many of the inhabitants of that rotten borough

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

What annoys me is the amount of 'city cars' (fiestas,corsas, polos etc) that are diesels. There just isn't the need for them, not while their petrol equivalents are almost as economical and cheaper to buy in the first place! According to CAP automotive a fiesta 1.25 petrol has 29p per mile running costs and a 1.5 diesel 33p per mile. Us, on the other hand, as Hackney operators (WAV'S) don't have a choice it's diesel or nothing. Yet we're the ones being blamed for the pollution!
I really hope the new Tx5 or Metrocab is as good as all the hype suggests. I'm not holding my breath though.