Chinese carmaker Geely pours £120 million into London electric cab maker

Chinese automotive giant Geely has reportedly poured £120 million (around $A235 million) into the London Electric Vehicle Company, the producer of London’s famous black taxi cabs.

Tracing its origins back to 1919, the London Taxi Company was rebranded the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) in 2017, four years after Geely bought the company out of administration.

At the time the company underwent its rebrand, it also launched it’s the new LEVC TX range-extended electric taxi alongside plans to begin producing electric commercial vehicles in addition to the famous London taxicabs.

LECV has made significant headway since then, expanding into new markets with new models including the TX Shuttle and VN5.

And, in an effort to continue to expand its presence in the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) market, Geely has reportedly poured £120 million into LECV over the past 10 months.

According to filings with the UK’s Companies House seen by The Times, Geely injected £70 million in October of 2023 and a further £50 million in May.

The cash is reportedly intended for use in producing a new electric cat platform, the Space Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform, which has been under development at research and development centres across the UK, Europe, and China. The SOA platform underpins LECVs new electric people carrier, the L380, which has just gone on sale in China.

This signals just the latest signs of Chinese interest in the UK’s EV market, with carmakers including Geely, BYD, and GWM all recently targeting increased market share over the last few years.

Joshua S. Hill

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.