Geely pumps another 120 million pounds into British LEVC e-taxis

Chinese carmaker Geely has invested another 120 million pounds, or almost 140 million euros, in LEVC, the British manufacturer of London’s famous black cabs. The investment is the latest signal of growing Chinese involvement in the British EV market.

The Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which, in addition to Volvo, owns car brands such as Zeekr, Polestar, Lynk&Co, and Livan, among others, has already invested more than £480 million  (€559 million) in LEVC, formerly the London Taxi Company, between 2014 and 2019.

Another £70 million (€81.6 million) followed last year in October, followed in May by a £50 million (€58 million) capital injection.

Much of that money went toward developing the LEVC site in Ansty, Coventry, a new 85,000 m² site, which is also housing a research and development center, to produce the next generation of green cabs. The site, the UK’s only dedicated EV manufacturing plant, employs about 1,000 people.

New state-of-the-art EV platform SOA

The 120 million pounds will mainly be used to produce a new state-of-the-art EV platform, the Space Oriented Architecture (SOA), developed at R&D centers across the UK, Europe, and China. The SOA platform will underpin LEVC’s future models, such as the L380, first launched in Wuzhen in late June.

Geely, a company owned by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu, who has also invested in European car brands such as Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, and Aston Martin, developed the hybrid e-cab LEVC TX in 2017. It is the fifth generation of London Taxis and the first to be zero-emission capable.

A new generation of iconic Londen black cab

The TX uses LECV’s eCity technology. Range-extended technology allows the TX, a plug-in hybrid, to travel over 112 km on pure electric power alone, while the small gasoline engine provides a further 643 km range.

Since 2017, they have also been driving around London, where diesel-powered cabs are banned from January 2018. The introduction of the TX black cab has been a major success, with over half of the city’s black cabs now meeting London’s stringent zero-emission regulations.

Growing Chinese involvement in the UK’s EV market

Yet the marriage between Geely and LEVC has not always been smooth, either. In recent years, the company faced financial difficulties, leading to a company-wide restructuring and a shift in focus toward e-vans and people carriers.

In any case, the new investment signals firm confidence in LEVC’s plant in Coventry. Depending on capacity, the plant could potentially produce new models within the next two years.

It is also another signal of growing Chinese involvement in the UK’s EV market. Companies such as BYD, Geely, and Ora have all rapidly increased their market share in recent years.

Or as BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu, often described as China’s Elon Musk, put it at an industry conference in late June, referring to the EU tariffs on China’s EVs: “If you are not strong enough, they will not be afraid of you.”