London Policies on Green Transportation Benefit Domestic Manufacturing

One-third of the 75,000 taxis licensed in England and Wales are found in London. Certain regulations in the city that define a taxi separately from a private hire vehicle have helped maintain the market for the iconic vehicle type, formally referred to as the hackney carriage. Most of these vehicles are notably bulbous—a counter revolutionary design in a landscape continually progressing toward the aerodynamic edging of a raindrop. They are produced in Coventry, a midsize English city, and are primarily the product of one company—formerly known as London Taxi International, now known as London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC). 

The rebrand came in 2017, just ahead of the company’s deployment of its plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) to comply with London’s newest addition to the definition of taxi. Beginning in 2018, any new taxi must have the capability to drive at least 30 miles with zero emissions. While the classic form factor of the London cab made for easy ingress and egress and had plenty of room, these vehicles had another defining characteristic: they are almost exclusively powered by clattering diesel engines. The vehicles may be fuel efficient, but cities across Europe are rapidly moving toward prohibitions based on nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate emissions. 

Rebirth of British Automakers

The new taxi propulsion definition is backed by millions in city funds to ensure that the burden of the policy does not fall solely on the taxi drivers. This has led to a small rebirth in British manufacturing and has positioned the small automakers supplying this specific market to ride the wave of global transportation electrification. 

Though LEVC is the major automaker affected by this policy, there are others. An old competitor, Metrocab, which has not registered a vehicle in England in years, is returning with a 50-mile PHEV at a cost between £40,000 and £50,000 ($50,000-$63,000). A new competitor, Dynamo Motors, has also emerged. The company is adapting Nissan’s fully electric e-NV200 to the other non-zero emissions capable requirements of the London taxi definition. Dynamo Motors’ offering enables over 170 all-electric miles at a cost of just over £40,000 ($50,000). Of note, all these vehicles are being produced in Coventry. 

Of these companies, LEVC was first to market, and as of the end of 2Q, it has registered over 330 vehicles in England. With taxi production ramping, LEVC has plans to expand abroad. It is already in Germany and Norway and recently announced it will also be in France in 2019. The company envisions markets further afield as well, targeting the Middle East & Asia. Such ambitions are buoyed by a growing list of European cities cracking down on vehicle emissions. The advance abroad is quite the change from early 2013, when LEVC had to be saved by Chinese automaker, Geely. It speaks to the transformative power that London’s emissions policy has had on this small company as well as the manufacturing fortunes of Coventry.