The London Taxi Company has made headlines recently after opening a £300m new factory in Ansty, near Coventry. The firm’s new range-extended black cab is expected to go on sale later in 2017, but London Taxi and its Chinese parent firm Geely have their eye firmly set on a bigger prize — the van market.

The firm has announced that the second vehicle to roll off its new production line in Ansty will be a range-extended electric van. Aimed at the urban market, this model is expected to help cut running costs and reduce pollution in urban areas.

A new London Taxi Company range-extended electric tax at the opening of the firm’s new £300m plant at Ansty, Coventry.

Chris Gubbey, CEO of the London Taxi Company said: 

“This is going to be the future proofed ’white van’ that people have been waiting for. Designed solely for the urban commercial sector, dedicated to the people who keep our cities working, it will be clean, competitive and ready for cities of the future.”

There’s certainly an opportunity here for the company, in my opinion. I believe van manufacturers have been slow to take advantage of the potential for petrol and range-extended van models.

The new van will be built on the same range-extended EV platform as the London Taxi. That makes sense — it doesn’t take much imagination to see how a platform built for black cab use could be converted into a van that’s comparable in size to a Ford Transit Custom, for example.