Last updated on April 22nd, 2020 at 11:36 am
In 2018, the London EV Company (LEVC) brought out the TX, an electric taxi that served as a replacement vehicle to older black cabs. Initially hit with a lot of scepticism, the TX has grown in popularity among taxi drivers and in September, the company recorded its best-ever month of sales.
To be specific, 352 TX taxis were sold. The growth and indeed interest in electric taxis has grown in the past year, as UK and European governments have started to implement a better infrastructure; with electric vehicles rising in popularity there are also more charging points available than ever before.
Joerg Hofmann, CEO of LEVC, said: “The TX Taxi has been a huge success and taxi drivers are leading the transformation to greener mobility, improving the carbon footprint of our cities by preventing more than 6,800 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere while benefitting from significant cost savings.”
The LEVC TX offers a range of around 80 miles on pure electric power, while its petrol engine extends this to 377 miles. It's a plug-in hybrid and can take a 22 kW AC or 50 kW DC input. LEVC is set to extend its range of electrified vehicles, with the launch of its new electric van in 2020. The vehicle will share much of the same technology as the TX.
I'd be keen to see the uptake in electrified service vehicles in the UK, notably, all-electric vehicles – London's low emission buses still use a diesel engine for power but have a hybrid system to reduce CO2 emissions. I wonder: how long will it be until all of the UK's buses and taxis turn fully electric?