Chinese holding company Zhejiang Geely, owner of the London Taxi Company, has raised $400 million to help fund its development of environment-friendly hybrid cabs.
The move is in accordance with London's new measures of making all new taxi cabs in the city zero-emissions compliant by 2018, as announced by former mayor Boris Johnson early this year.
Zhejiang Geely said the funds it was able to raise will be used to manufacture 36,000 TX5 cabs, which will follow the classic look of the 1958 Austin FX5 models but with hybrid features to make them greener. The model was first revealed by Chinese president, Xi Jinping, during his state visit to the United Kingdom in October.
The hybrid cabs will be built in a new factory located in Ansty just outside of Coventry. The area has been known for manufacturing the iconic black cabs of London for decades. The facility will handle both research and production of the new cabs.
Zhejiang Geely said it expects to have the first batch of the green TX5 cabs to be available for sale by the end of 2017.
Franki Li, chief financial officer for Zhejiang Geely, explained that the company's goal is not only to produce hybrid cabs for the UK but to provide the same type of vehicles to other countries as well in order to help lower emissions and make a greener environment for everyone.
Aside from the UK, the London Taxi Company has also been selling its cabs to Australia, Azerbaijan and a few other Middle Eastern countries.
Zhejiang Geely was able to acquire the London Taxi Company after paying its former owner, Manganese Bronze, £11 million (about $16 million) in 2013.
Manganese Bronze collapsed following the discovery of a defect on the steering box on some units of its TX4 cabs. This forced the company to recall 400 affected cabs.
The faulty steering box part was manufactured by Zhejiang Geely, which owned 20 percent of Manganese Bronze at the time.
