London Taxi Company's new Ansty Park plant opens in Coventry

A £300m taxi manufacturing plant which created 1,000 new jobs is to be officially opened later.

The London Taxi Company's (LTC) Ansty Park site in Coventry is the home of its new electric taxi, the TX5.

LTC - which now employs up to 1,500 people - has invested more than £300m in the TX5 after manufacturing the black cab in the UK for 69 years.

Administrators were called into LTC in 2012 before Chinese carmaker Geely bought the business the following year.

The first electric taxis to roll off the production line will go on sale in London in the final quarter of the year, before being sold around the world early in 2018.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-39343519

Edited By Ady1 on 22/03/2017 11:35:12

189 years ...

That was the old 1HP model................

It's a copy it's not in tolerance and it runs rough!!

"Administrators were called into LTC in 2012 before Chinese carmaker Geely bought the business the following year."

That somewhat glosses over the problems that took down the original company.

In an effort to cut manufacturing costs they sourced a power steering assembly from China with inherent design issues that caused safety concerns and then stopped production, the total drop off in sales took down the company. The design and intellectual property rights were then picked up for next to nothing by an 'overseas investor.from China'... who was intimately involved in the supply of the faulty steering assemblies.

Edited By Martin 100 on 22/03/2017 16:32:07

Good to hear of jobs being created.

Thanks for the heads up Ady1. The roads and vehicles will be a different place in 20 years time, and you will probably be able to pick up a battery for one of them in Halfords!

Steve

That somewhat glosses over the problems that took down the original company.

In an effort to cut manufacturing costs they sourced a power steering assembly from China with inherent design issues that caused safety concerns and then stopped production, the total drop off in sales took down the company.

That somewhat glosses over the catastrophic company decisions made by Manganese Bronze

Having created a fabulous indestructible TX1 with an indestructible 500k to 1 million mile engine from Nissan they tried to enter the US market

Fine said the USA, "but it must have a US diesel engine if you want to sell it here"...

So they fitted a Ford diesel which was semi reliable compared to the TX1, and called it the TX2. There were so many problems that many TX2 owners dumped them and went back to TX1s

So the geniuses at Manganese Bronze went for ANOTHER American diesel engine for the TX4, because American diesel engines are famous throughout the world for their economy and reliability

They chose that bastion of super duper diesel engines, Chrysler, to re-engine the new TX4 and they very kindly converted a marine diesel they made for boats to run in a taxi cab body

The rest, as they say folks, is histoire

British Management.... and the British car industry.... now 99.9% extinct

Chairman Ady will say no more