London Cabs head to Europe
- January 30, 2017
- Posted by: Simon Wait
- Category: Industry News
Reuters reports that London cabs will hit Europe’s city streets next year.
Chris Gubbey, chief executive of the London Taxi Company (LTC), owned by Chinese automaker Geely, told Reuters the business is aiming for a ten-fold increase in output to around 10,000 cabs and light commercial vehicles by the turn of the decade, and wants to sell its taxis to major European cities.
Executives from LTC, which traces its roots back to 1899 and was bought by Geely in 2013, have visited cities such as Oslo, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin in recent months, seeking new markets for the London black taxi.
Speaking to Reuters, Chris Gubbey said, ‘We’ll start selling them in 2018.
‘They [European cities] tend to be very nationalistic in their product and I think knowing that, we have be to very sensible about what we believe can be our rate of climb in terms of marketshare.’
The firm has invested around £300m in a new plant near Coventry, close to its existing facility which makes the current range of conventional models.
