The TX5 will go on sale in the UK and global markets in 2017 and has been developed by Geely, the new owners of the London Taxi Cab.
The London Taxi is as much part of England as the Queen, Big Ben, Harrods and the London Bridge. Known for its iconic styling, the cab has been pretty much the same since it first came into service back in 1958 and now retaining the iconic elements from the original FX4, Chinese car maker Geely (also Volvo’s parent company) has revealed the TX5 London Taxi that will be taking the legacy forward.
Scheduled to hit the streets in 2017, Geely that now owns the London Taxi Cab Company has maintained the old school charm on the TX5 with the instantly recognisable silhouette, but gets striking new elements like LED DRLs. The new cab is built around an aluminium body structure wrapped in composite panels and complies with the London taxi requirements including the trunk capacity beside the driver, wheelchair access and face-to-face passenger seating for six people.
The Geely TX5 also comes with a very small turning radius in order to make it easy to manoeuvre on the narrow streets of England. In addition, the driver gets more legroom while WiFi and several charging points along the cabin are offered as standard. The rear-hinged door has been incorporated for easier access while there is a panoramic sunroof providing a complete view of the historically enriched city and will be a tourist’s delight.
Previously owned by Volvo, a design studio in Barcelona, Spain with a team of 200 engineers was in charge of accentuating the styling on the TX5 while the underpinnings are developed by the London Taxi Company. Under the hood, the new taxi cab will be drawing power from a newly developed plug-in hybrid engine that is said to be a four-cylinder petrol motor but the displacement isn’t out yet. That said, it is known that the TX5 will come with an only electric range of 48 kms.
Geely has invested a whopping $460 million (around Rs. 3000 crores) for building a manufacturing facility in Antsy, UK that will be producing the TX5 London taxi and will come with an integrated R&D department. The brand new facility will be capable of assembling a minimum of 36,000 units per year and the the plant will see seven different electric vehicles being produced in the long term, based on the same modular platform as the TX5 with the body made out of composite panels and aluminium. The company plans to sell the model in the other markets as well globally.
We had reviewed the London Taxi TX4 Cab 3 years back, you can read the review HERE.
