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The new LEVC TX taxi will start accepting fare-paying passengers in London today, the latest step in a series of trials ahead of the first deliveries of the electrified cab early next year – and Autocar has had an early taste of the car on the streets of the capital.

After an extensive development programme, a small fleet of production-spec TX cabs has been undergoing evaluation by Transport for London (TfL)-licensed black cab drivers, giving a small number of passengers free rides as part of that process. Those cabs will now be used on regular routes, giving LEVC a final chance to gather feedback and hone the design while production ramps up at its new Coventry facility.

Steve Cropley drives a LEVC TX prototype

Autocar has previously had a passenger ride on London roads in a prototype cab and driven a similar development machine on rural roads near LEVC’s new factory. We’ve now had our first taste of an effectively final-spec machine – in full classic black livery – on London roads.

The first thing to note is that our short test route, which loops out of LEVC’s North London showroom, is far from ideal for testing the dynamic properties of a car. On a busy weekday afternoon, our run down Euston Road past King's Cross, past Regents Park and round the tight streets of Little Venice offers plenty of traffic and virtually no flowing corners. Yet conversely, those are ideal conditions in which to evaluate the new TX, since it’s the sort of roads that the bulk of the London-bound examples will spend the vast bulk of their time traversing.

That said, on first sight, the prospect of driving a TX in London traffic is, to a non-taxi driver, at least, a little intimidating: it’s far bulkier than the old diesel-powered TX4 it’s replacing. The two machines share a very similar footprint – London taxi rules dictate a maximum width, as well as that famous 8.5-metre turning circle. The TX is marginally higher than its predecessor and, at 4860mm, around 280mm longer, and it certainly fills that space far more comprehensively than its predecessor. The large slab sides hint at both the far more spacious interior – for both driver and passengers – and the enhanced safety features.

Walking to the office of the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) near Kings Cross, I pass a souvenir shop. There, in the window, among Royal Family tea towels, fluffy British bulldogs and Big Ben bookends, are two toy vehicles: a red bus and a black cab. Because very few things say ‘London’ quite like its traditional taxi.

One way the black cab became so iconic, a cynic might say, was by failing to move with the times. The motorised Hackney Carriage had only seen three significant updates since the Austin FX3 was launched in 1948. The car I’m here to drive changed all that. Behind a familiar face, London finally has a high-tech taxi it deserves.

Going by the snappy title of LEVC TX eCity, the latest cab ditches outdated diesel engines for plug-in electric tech. It’s cleaner, cheaper to run, safer and more socially acceptable. It’s also much nicer for both passengers and drivers, as I’ll discover.

Sent to Coventry

LEVC is owned by Chinese carmaker, Geely, but the TX is built in the UK. A £325 million investment created 1,000 new jobs, plus capacity to build more than 20,000 taxis per year.

Now, with the addition of the mechanically similar LEVC VN5 van and spin-off camper van, the factory in Ansty, near Coventry, is growing further.

Geely also owns Lotus and is best known for bankrolling the rebirth of Volvo. Since the takeover in 2010, Volvo has launched a new range of award-winning cars and SUVs, plus standalone sub-brand Polestar.

The LEVC TX borrows many parts from its Swedish cousin, including an electric motor from the sporty Polestar 1 (which has two of them).

Making the black cab green

LEVC refers to the TX as ‘electric’ because its 1.5-litre petrol engine is only used to boost the batteries – not drive the wheels. More accurately, it’s a range-extender hybrid, with plug-in points for both CCS- and Chademo-style chargers either side of the front grille.

The batteries can be topped up to 80 percent capacity in 25 minutes, and full charge gives an electric-only range of 80 miles – two thirds of the 120 miles a typical cabbie drives in a day.

Quoted fuel economy is 217.3mpg, although that drops to just 36.7mpg with the batteries depleted. Still, the old diesel-powered TX4 managed 33.2mpg at best.

One stumbling block for LEVC is that only 60 percent of cabbies have off-street parking to charge overnight. For those that do, however, the savings are significant. My driver, Pat, told me his TX cost £2.80 to charge and saved £80 a week in fuel – around £4,000 a year – versus his TX4. With recent rises in the cost of fuel, that advantage will only have increased.

More pleasant for passengers

The plan is for Pat to chauffeur me into central London, then I’ll drive back. Opening the TX’s big, rear-hinged door, there are now six seats rather than five, along with appreciably more space.

Passengers in wheelchairs can also face forwards for the first time: a notable safety gain.

The fabrics and fittings are still very much ‘wipe clean’, but there’s air-conditioning, on-board wi-fi and charging sockets for phones and laptops. A standard-fit panoramic glass sunroof bathes the cabin in light – and offers a great view of London’s loftier landmarks. “Tourists love it,” smiles Pat.

On the move, the TX is smooth and eerily quiet, a calm cocoon amid the bustling streets and a stark contrast to rattling taxis of old. With just me on board, its ride feels on the firm side, although a full complement of six passengers would doubtless dampen it down.

The ‘ultimate driving machine’ for cabbies

Pat pulls over by Regent’s Park and it’s my turn to take the wheel. If you’ve driven any recent Volvo, the TX’s dashboard will feel instantly familiar. There’s a rebranded version of the Sensus touchscreen media system and even the key is the same.

Squared-off styling and a high, SUV-like driving position make the TX easy to place on the road. It’s astonishingly manoeuvrable, too, mainly thanks to front wheels that swivel 63 degrees (versus 38 degrees in a typical car). Three-point turns are a thing of the past.

The instant torque of the electric motor offers brisk acceleration, even if top speed is a modest 80mph. You can also switch into one of two regenerative braking modes, which use friction to slow the car and charge the batteries – allowing one-pedal driving at city speeds.

The new cab is a great way to travel around London – and not only because you can zip along bus lanes. It’s capable and well suited to its environment. Sadly, the same can’t be said of me, and I rely on Pat’s directions to get us home. Sat-nav is optional, but it’s no substitute for three years of learning The Knowledge.

First London, then the world

LEVC has plans that stretch far beyond the M25. The cab is already carrying passengers in Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Oslo and many other cities.

There was even talk of the TX being sold in New York – in iconic ‘yellow cab’ livery, no less – now the city’s taxi industry has been deregulated. It sure beats the ‘van with windows’ Nissan NV200.

London will remain LEVC’s biggest market, though, and the TX has already become part of the streetscape here. Shame the souvenir industry hasn’t kept pace; it’s still flogging toy TX4s.

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If you’re fed up with riding around in a taxi that seems from a different era, then the new TX will really delight. It’s smooth, quiet and comfortable and has many modern touches commuters need. But if you’re a cabbie the transformation from old TX4 to new TX is unbelievable. It drives much like a modern hybrid SUV and won’t make cabbies feel like second-class drivers anymore.

Considering its importance to the fabric of London life, it’s remarkable there have only ever been a handful of taxi models built solely for the Capital. Unlike the other cars Auto Express reviews, there are not brand new taxis every year – rather there are landmark taxis over the last 70 years that have trudged on, lightly updated, and ferried the millions, if not billions, of people around London.

The story can be loosely boiled down two three models – the Austin FX3 of 1949, followed by the 1958 FX4 (which became the Fairway in 1989) and the TX1 launched in 1997. This new TX, though, is easily the biggest step-change.

It still holds onto a number of features from its predecessors, however. Like the FXs and TXs, the new one is totally bespoke for London – it’s not a Mercedes Vito that’s been adapted for life on the Big Smoke’s streets, for example – and there’s a nod to the ‘bowler hat’ design and suicide doors. The other similarities are legal – it has to have wheelchair access and it must have a turning circle of 25 feet (that’s the width of the turning circle outside the Savoy hotel). But from here on it’s totally different.

The name is a clue to how different it is. The ‘traditional’ London taxi builder has been known as Carbodies, London Taxis International and the London Taxi Company over the years. But now, owned by the Chinese powerhouse Geeley, the firm calls itself the London Electric Vehicle Company – or LEVC – and has a super smart new £325m factory in Coventry for the production of electric vehicles.

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The TX is the first new product to trundle down the new production line, but it’s not completely electric though. Under its stylish but retro body, there’s a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine from another Geeley brand – Volvo. At the back there’s an electric motor powering the rear wheels, but LEVC makes a big point of the TX not being a hybrid. To them, ‘hybrid’ means only one thing – the Toyota Prius – so refers to the TX as a range-extender like the BMW i3.

It drives much like your typical range extender, too. There’s around an 80-mile pure electric range so it means for the vast majority of a cabbie’s shift, they’ll be gliding around on electric power, with the engine kicking in occasionally to extend the range (this is when the TX is in ‘Smart’ mode; there are two other modes ‘Pure EV’ and ‘Save’ which stores the electricity). There’s none of the old TX4’s wailing diesel engine and black smoke pouring out the exhaust here.

The TX is as smooth and quiet as most EVs around town; the ride is good and TX is simple, easy and enjoyable to drive. The only really gripes being a bit of road noise, a regenerative brake pedal that is to modulate pressure with, and with that electric motor generating 255Nm of torque, the rear wheels have a tendency to spin up.

• New LEVC plug-in van

Up front and it’s like being in a large SUV. There’s a commanding driving position, the doors are thick and there’s good visibility. The SUV theme continues when you look at the controls as almost all the touch-points – the wheel, stalks, gearlever, start/stop switch and even the key – are pinched from the Volvo XC90. There’s even the Volvo’s nine-inch portrait touchscreen too. There’s a slightly different software theme but it works in the same way.

There’s a range of three trims; basic equipment includes the touchscreen, a panoramic roof, auto lights and wipers and rear parking sensors while our top spec cab throws in sat-nav and front parking sensors. Overall it couldn’t be more different to the cramped seating position and haphazard dashboard layout in the outgoing diesel-powered TX4 cab.

In the back and it’s similarly new world. There’s now space for six, there are conveniences like USB charging ports and a three-pin socket, and there’s even climate control and on-board wi-fi. But it’s the panoramic roof that’s the real boon – well it is in December, whether punters will enjoy it in mid-July is another thing.

On our test drive we were stopped by a dozen cabbies all wanting to know more about the TX. It’s new look and electric driving range excited all those who stopped us, but there are concerns there aren’t enough rapid chargers in London to top up the TX’s batteries. And despite reasonable weekly payment plans, there’s no overlooking the TX’s asking price (it starts at £55,599) is strong. Despite this though, the TX is exactly the taxi London needs and wants.

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The TX is powered primarily by rear-mounted electric motors with a total power output of 120kW and an EV range of over 75 miles in normal use. With the 1.5-litre Volvo-sourced three-cylinder petrol generator turned on that potential range increases to 400 miles or more. Regenerative braking helps top up the battery further. LEVC’s engineers resent it being called a ‘hybrid’, lumping it in with cars like the Toyota Prius that run with the engine on most of the time.

With the average London cabbie completing roughly 120 miles a day, LEVC bosses expect most TX users to use one of Transport for London’s rapid chargers (75 will be installed by the end of this year, with double that expected by 2018) to get an eighty per-cent range top-up in 20 minutes. LEVC estimates that even in a worse-case scenario where a driver uses £50 of petrol a week, they’ll save about £100 over that period with the TX. The environmental benefits are obvious, too, with far less local pollutants and particulate emissions than the old diesel TX4 cabs.

Despite this, LEVC says a small percentage of drivers have concerns, ranging from where they can charge it at home to how expensive the battery is to replace. Product Manager Alistair Fairgreave claims these can be resolved with “a bit of informed education”.

“Many drivers are of the belief that a battery has to be a disposable or expensive to maintain item. The reality is that there’s nothing a driver can do to damage the battery, short of having an accident, and our durability testing for the TX has been far in excess of what we’ve previously done”.

LEVC are so confident that each TX is offered with a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty. Given cabbies will usually cover up to 200,000 miles in that time, it’s a big commitment. In case this doesn’t quell concerns, LEVC is inviting current drivers to its London showroom to demonstrate the new model.

After we were briefed in a similar style to the drivers, we hit the road in the back of a camouflaged prototype with Fairgreave and Technical Director Ian Collins, a man with 23 years of engineering experience at companies such as Rover and McLaren. He’s been working on the project since its conception in early 2013, and is proud of how quickly LEVC has got the TX to market.

Although passengers won’t spend any time up there, the front compartment is the biggest revelation. It’s lifted almost wholesale from Volvo, meaning TFT dials, a crisp central touchscreen and levels of space and material quality a TX4 driver could only dream of. And while it lacks items such as lane assist or blind spot monitoring, it does retain autonomous braking, which works up to a speed of 47mph - perfect for London's congested streets.

The rear is more advanced, too – it may be a familiar layout and design, but details like touch controls for the air-con, WiFi connectivity and a three-pin charging socket make it a more business-like environment for passengers. Accessibility is improved; there’s a neat wheelchair ramp that slides out of the floor, and the rear-hinged doors make it a doddle to step in. There’s roomy seating for six now, too.

Like any EV, our ‘cabbie’ simply engaged drive and headed off, with the electric motor whirring behind our heads. Collins admits that there’s still some work to be done to insulate the motor, which at the moment is audible but not intrusive. Still, it’s far quieter than taxis of old.

The instant torque of the motor also means the TX feels pretty sprightly around town. Collins claims that the team reduced the powertrain’s output during testing as it was “too powerful”, spinning up the rear wheels without much effort. No figures for acceleration or weight are quoted, but Collins admits it weighs “about as much as a large SUV” and is capable of sitting comfortably at just over 70mph. Our journey was almost entirely in electric mode, with the range-extender firing up with a distant rumble only as a demonstration.

Obviously, we’ve no experience of how it handles, but over the speed bump infested London streets it seem to absorb all but the worst intrusions. Collins states that it’s been benchmarked against a Volvo XC90, and while it’s a way off that car’s luxurious feel this certainly feels like a cut above any taxi we’ve sat in before. And sure enough, when it’s time to turn back, the trademark super-tight 63 degree turning circle every London cab needs comes into play.

LEVC has expectations of shifting over 1,500 examples next of the TX next year, with 90 per cent of buyers expected to take advantage of the five-year weekly payment deal. And with government regulations ensuring all London taxis must have a zero emission range of at least 30 miles next year, LEVC is in a prime position to capitalise on this.

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LEVC has handed over the first customer TX to its new owner, meaning the first commercially operational electric London cab has begun working in public.

The taxi, a model capable of zero-emissions driving, was certified to carry fare-paying passengers last month. An LEVC spokesman told Autocar that it has now received more than 200 orders, with production at the company's Coventry plant now due to ramp up.

Autocar has already driven the LEVX TX taxi. Click here to rear the first drive

It is priced from £55,599 but is also available with a finance plan that charges drivers £177 per week over a five-year period. LEVC, the Geely-owned firm formerly known as the London Taxi Company, said the outgoing TX4 model cost £167 per week over a four-year period.

LEVC says it has focused on weekly lease costs rather than an outright purchase price because that is how 94% of taxi drivers fund their vehicles. The TX is being sold with its battery so that no additional lease charges are incurred.

LEVC claimed that its new model will cost drivers about £50 per week in fuel, based on an average of about 115 miles per working day. The weekly estimate is £100 less than the outgoing 2.7-litre diesel-powered TX4 can achieve.

The new electrified taxi arrives as 2018 legislation, developed by Transport for London (TfL) to dictate all new cabs must be capable of zero-emissions driving for at least 30 miles, comes into force. The LEVC TX is powered by an advanced battery electric powertrain with a 1.3-litre petrol generator, a system that its maker calls 'eCity'.

This range-extender technology gives the TX a range of more than 400 miles and it can run for more than 70 miles on electric power only. It can charge its depleted battery to almost full in 20 minutes via a rapid charger, in two hours with a fast charger and in about eight to ten hours on a trickle charger.

LEVC will service the taxis for free during the first three years or 90,000 miles of their lives. It will also provide a full manufacturer warranty and free roadside assistance for the first three years or 120,000 miles.

LEVC commercial director Richard Gordon said: “I am delighted to announce such a competitive package for the new electric TX. Market leading in every way, this is a truly outstanding new vehicle that will revolutionise the taxi trade in London from an emissions perspective, for passenger comfort, experience and enjoyment, and importantly for the drivers.”

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