Chinese carmaker Geely injects £120m into London black cab maker
Chinese carmaker Geely has injected £120m into LEVC, the British producer of London’s famous black cabs, as it continues to expand in the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) market.
According to Companies House filings, Geely pumped £70m into its Coventry-based subsidiary last October, and a further £50m in May.
The cash is being used to produce a new electric car platform. Developed at R&D centres across the UK, Europe and China, the Space Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform underpins LEVC’s L380 model, first launched in Wuzhen in late June.
Geely’s involvement in UK taxicab manufacturing began in 2006 when it launched a tie-up with London EV company’s predecessor, the London Taxi Company.
The Chinese owner of Volvo and Lotus was forced to rescue the taxi firm from administration in 2013, saving more than 100 jobs in a buyout deal worth £13m.
In March 2015, LEVC announced plans to build a new facility at its Ansty Park headquarters, which lie to the north east of Coventry. The £90m proposals created 1,000 jobs, with Geely’s aim to produce around 36,000 vehicles per year at the time.
The company developed the LEVC TX in 2017, a hybrid electric taxi, after an investment of over £300m.
The investment is the latest signal of growing Chinese involvement in the UK’s EV market. Firms such as BYD, Geely and Ora have all rapidly increased market share in recent years.
It was reported in May that BYD was close to receiving a contract to build more than 100 all-electric double-decker buses, beating local competitors such as Alexander Dennis.