By 2017, the city’s famous black cabs are getting a hybrid engine upgrade with new design features like rear-hinged passenger doors and even charging ports for gadgets. The red carpet has been rolled out for President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with China’s most powerful couple being treated to the best pomp and pageantry Buckingham Palace can muster. It also has a panoramic glass roof, in-built wifi and charging points for electrical devices.
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The facility will grow by 50% to 31,000 square metres. In addition to buying London Taxi’s former parent Manganese Bronze Holdings Plc in 2013, Geely acquired Sweden’s Volvo Cars five years ago.
The prototype, unveiled this week by the London Taxi Company, retains much of the iconic design language, while also featuring a new lightweight aluminium body structure.
Meet the TX5 – a brand new London black cab which has been re-engineered with a hybrid engine to meet the emissions standards required of all new cabs in London from 2018.
“We will have invested many years of development and more than 300 million pounds in bringing the TX5 to market”, Li Shufu said.
The London Taxi Company’s timeless black cab is a phenomenon that is well-known across the globe. The London Taxi Company is owned by Geely, a Chinese auto company (which also owns Volvo).
He said: “We were acutely aware of the huge responsibility that comes with introducing a new generation of design for what is already an instantly recognisable and iconic vehicle”. What do you think of the new design?”We have sought to build on existing features such as the headlights, grille and strong roof lines”.
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Moreover, there is space for a forward facing wheelchair making it easier for senior citizens and differently-abled people. The new site will work on nine potential product variants, including light commercial vehicles. 50m GBP have been attributed to the new factory which will be producing at least 36,000 units annually. Geely openly admits that export markets are monumentally important for the TX5, but at the time of writing it hasn’t disclosed plans to offer the cab in the United States.
