London Taxi Company bets future on 119-year-old technology

By Jessica Shankleman

London’s iconic black cabs are banking their future on a 19th century technology: the electric motor.

To help solve the UK capital’s smog problems, London Taxi Co. is turning to methods of propulsion used by forerunners at the London Electrical Cab Co., which from 1897 ran a fleet of 80 battery-powered cars designed by Walter C Bersey. That first electric-motor taxi trial fizzled out in 1899 after the costly vehicles, which drove only slightly faster than a horse, were scrapped for internal-combustion engines powered by gas.

Fast forward almost 120 years and Peter Johansen, president of London Taxi Co, is going back in time to boost UK manufacturing and bring better air quality to the city’s streets. His company’s investing $400 million to build electric cabs. The transition away from all diesel vehicles driving in London could help eliminate almost 10,000 early deaths a year caused by smog.

"There’s a general recognition of the need to improve air quality," Johansen said in a telephone interview. "Clearly electric vehicles are the way of the future for urban situations."

The new London Taxi Co. factory near Coventry will start stamping out electric cabs from 2018, the date when all new taxis on London’s streets need to be zero-emissions capable, with either pure electric or hybrid motors. The company, owned by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings group, this year toured European cities from Paris to Berlin, seeking to drum up interest for a potential export market, said Johansen, adding that the June 23 vote to leave the European Union hasn’t impacted his company.

London Taxi is still trying to determine how much its electric cabs will cost and expects falling battery prices in the next 18 months to make their vehicle more attractive, Johansen said.