Mayor announces plans for cleaner, low carbon taxis in London
Mon 20 January 2014
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The Mayor of London has announced that all new taxis introduced to the capital will need to be zero-emission capable from 2018.
The Mayor outlined his plans at an event which saw manufacturers showcasing the next generation of taxis.
Transport for London says that road transport contributes around 80 per cent of airborne pollution in the parts of central London where air quality is the worst and that black cabs contribute to 30 per cent of particulate emissions in these areas.
To achieve this goal, the Mayor and Transport for London have been working with five companies to develop new taxis, including LTC, Frazer Nash, Nissan, Karsan and Mercedes.
The new zero-emission capable taxis being developed include plug-in full series hybrid vehicles and electric models that have the ability to operate without emitting harmful pollutants.
The dominant London taxi maker, LTC says it will invest £200m, according to its Chinese owners Geely, to help develop green taxi technology over the next five years.
There are almost 23,000 black cabs licensed to operate in London. The Mercedes Vito accounts for over 2,000 with the rest made by LTC. The company expects new competition from four companies that are producing zero-emission taxis to comply with Mayor’s new 2018 regulation.
LTC says it will launch a zero-emission taxi model by 2018, which will be a plug-in extended range electric taxi, with its exterior in the same recognizable shape of London's black cabs.
Through Source London, the capital has one of the most developed public electric vehicle charging networks in the world with almost 1,400 charge points.
The charging scheme is going to be managed by IER from the summer and the company has plans to increase the number of charge points across the city to 6,000 by 2018, with targeted services for taxi drivers.
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