Manganese Bronze Share Discussion Threads

[waldron] 31/12/2022 13:05

Perry Richardson
4 hours ago
3 min read

Mayor of London encouraged to share plans to ensure ‘affordable’ and ‘readily available’ black taxis


The Mayor of London was encouraged to outline what actions he plans to take to ensure ‘affordable’ and ‘readily available’ black cabs remain available in the capital as numbers dwindle since post-pandemic.

There are currently just 14,936 black cabs licensed in the capital. In April 2020, just a month into coronavirus lockdowns, the taxi fleet stood 20 percent higher at 18,341.

Low demand for taxis during strict coronavirus social restrictions saw the taxi fleet shrink. Many drivers left the industry completely due to a lack of sufficient financial support from local authorities and Government.

Demand for taxis in the capital has bounced back in 2022, but the number of taxi drivers licensed continues to fall. High vehicle and operating costs are pushing many away and also failing to attract new applicants to the role.

The current cash price of a LEVC TX Vista Comfort sits at £63,805. That price includes a £7,500 Government ‘Plug-in Taxi Grant’ which runs until April 2024. After that date, an extension has not been confirmed, and could push the cash price of a taxi through the £70,000 barrier for the first time in its history.

Taxi manufacturers LEVC announced this Autumn plan to cut its workforce by 140 in a bid to improve efficiency and long-term growth.

The Coventry based black cab manufacturers, famous for its electric TX model, said its voluntary redundancy program will form part of a series of measures to improve “sustainability profitability and growth,” as the company emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and disrupted supply chains.

The company, owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company sold 1,620 vehicles and posted pre-tax losses of £118million last year.

London Assembly Member (AM) Caroline Pidgeon asked the Mayor of London (1): “Given the announcement of 140 job losses from the London Electric Vehicle Company's (LEVC) production centre in Coventry, where London's iconic black taxis are built, what actions are you taking to ensure affordable, readily available electric black taxis are available to London's black taxi trade?”

Sadiq Khan said: “I am proud that since Transport for London (TfL) introduced a zero emission capable (ZEC) licensing requirement for new taxis in 2018, and despite challenging economic conditions as a result of the pandemic, 43 percent of London’s taxi fleet is now ZEC.

“TfL and I have supported the taxi industry with delicensing payments totalling more than £30m to encourage the owners of older, more polluting vehicles to remove them from the fleet. TfL also continues to contribute to the £7,500 grant off the purchase price of any new ZEC taxi. In addition, TfL has installed more than 300 rapid charge points, with a significant number of these dedicated to taxi-only use.

“LEVC continues to manufacture its TXe ZEC taxi and has stated that its recent announcement of a planned restructure ‘will provide support for the business as it enters the next crucial phase of its development and a planned return to sustainable profitability and growth’.”

Alex Nan, CEO of LEVC, said earlier this month (2): “LEVC now enters the next exciting stage with our new brand strategy, which will see us become a leading zero carbon mobility technology company.

“Since the launch of the TX in 2018, LEVC has experienced rapid growth, with 9,000 global sales to date, those vehicles travelling more than 500 million miles and preventing 152,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.

“In London, LEVC’s TX accounts for 82% of the taxi market, and there are now more TX’s on the streets than diesel TX4s. LEVC looks forward to continuing to help the capital to accelerate the transition to a clean, green EV black cab fleet.

“Going forward, our state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Ansty, Coventry, will continue to be the home of the famous, iconic TX taxi - the London black cab and new generation models. We will build on LEVC’s unrivalled heritage and grow beyond high-end taxi manufacturing, delivering smart, green, safe and accessible mobility to more customers than ever before.

“Watch this space in 2023, as we are targeting a 20% year-on-year sales increase, and more details on LEVC’s strategy will be revealed in Q1.”

Sources:

(1)

(2)www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/taxi-manufacturers-levc-reveals-new-zero-carbon-mobility-strategy-heading-into-2023

[gibbs1] 26/4/2022 11:27

Published by Correspondent
Matthew Neville
on
26 Apr 2022

London Electric Vehicle Company celebrates “major landmark” with 5,000 taxis sold

As part of Bdaily’s coverage of Green Energy Week, we look to the capital where London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) has announced another significant milestone with 5,000 of its TX taxis being sold in London.

Following its launch in 2018, TX has been a “trailblazer” for the worldwide taxi market, and with more than a third of licensed black taxis in London now the TX, London leads the globe in purpose-built, fully accessible electrified taxis.

The TX features a lightweight aluminium body and benefits from LEVC’s eCity range extender powertrain. This “game-changing” technology enables the taxi to travel in full electric mode for up to 64 miles. The car has a total range of 318 miles and reduces NOx emissions by 99.5 per cent.

In the four years since launching, the TX has prevented 109,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Additionally, the cab’s electric powertrain has prevented 61 million litres of fuel from being burnt, saving drivers a total of £91m.

Since taking to the streets, the 5,000 cabs have travelled a combined distance of approximately 307 million miles, which equates to circumnavigating the globe an incredible 12,333 times.

To date, more than 2 million passenger journeys have been taken in the electric TX taxi in London. Once they step through the limousine-like doors, passengers can enjoy an exceptionally comfortable interior, flooded with natural light courtesy of a panoramic glass roof.

Joerg Hofmann, CEO of LEVC, commented: “Drawing on more than a century of industry experience, combined with state-of-the-art technology, LEVC successfully developed the world’s most advanced taxi: the electric TX.

“Our 5,000th sale in London is a major landmark for the business and we’re proud that our TX is making a significant contribution to improving urban air quality, as well as supporting drivers in the transition to sustainable mobility.

“As a business, LEVC continues to go from strength-to-strength and March saw us achieve record global sales for both the TX and our VN5 van.”

[grupo] 27/3/2022 10:37

The company, founded in 1919, was rescued by Li Shufu, of Shanghai-based Geely Automotive, and Volvo, in February for £11.4m. The Chinese businessman has pledged £150m for development of new models, including innovative ultra-low emissions taxis.

WHATS THE NAME OF NEW COMPANY


The new holding company was named The London Taxi Corporation, and it traded as The London Taxi Company (as LTI had done). This successor company was renamed to London EV Company in 2017.

[adrian j boris] 27/3/2022 10:21

[...]

www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/clipper-cabs-fully-electric-black-taxis-could-be-made-available-to-cabbies-for-just-230-a-week


Perry Richardson
29 minutes ago
6 min read

CLIPPER CABS: Fully electric black taxis could be made available to cabbies for just £230 A WEEK

Image credit: Clipper Cabs

Clipper Automotive, a tech start-up firm that specialises in electric vehicle (EV) conversions, has said a fleet of FULLY ELECTRIC black taxis could be made available to drivers costing just £230 a week.

In the quest to speed up its green credentials, the taxi industry may have found an interim solution to quickly convert more of its current fleet into more cost effective and environmentally friendly taxis.

The firm behind the technology, Clipper Automotive, was set up by two experts in their field, Dr Alexander Howard and Janosch Oppermann. Their aim has always been to turn diesel black taxis into Zero Emission Capable (ZEC) vehicles.

The London taxi industry has already invested heavily in new EV taxis since new vehicle regulations were introduced in January 2018. Since then over 5,000 electric taxis have been licensed by Transport for London (TfL), leaving roughly 9,000 licensed diesel cabs still working in the capital.

TaxiPoint’s Founder and Editor Perry Richardson caught up with Janosch to find out more...

Can you tell us a little more about the taxi? What range can it achieve and what has the feedback been like?

Hi Perry, thanks for talking to me. Yes of course, we have driven it ourselves and had some local drivers have a go. You can watch their reactions in our YouTube channel, just search for “Clipper Automotive”, the reactions there are real, we had someone from the LTDA in it, then a real driver Andrew that we knew from before, and Aiden the singing cabbie, who we reached out to just for this. They all enjoyed the smoothness of it.

In terms of range, it has the same cells in it as the van conversion you know of. So 40kWh worth of battery pouches. That gives you 150 miles WLTP, a little less if you correct for vehicle weight. Now WLTP includes highway driving and such, and it is a bit of a technical term really, a bit how exhaust emissions are measured with the hose in a clinical environment and real world emissions are then a whole other kettle of fish.

With these batteries it also depends on summer/ winter, how many auxiliary systems you have running and so forth. Like, running the radio takes almost no energy, running LED lamps is also almost free, incandescent bulbs like the headlights take a little bit more, but still not that much. As soon as you start heating things you reduce the range is what I am getting at, so the cabin heater is the biggest consumer, and the de-fogger of the rear window, so ideally you want to run these while charging and less when driving if you can. In any event, you shouldn’t have less than 100mile range with these unless you are in a snowstorm. On a summer’s day you might get a lot closer to the 150miles. Also keep in mind that they can be charged rapidly, so from 20% to 80% it takes you around 35 minutes, so you can do north of 100 miles without much trouble if you plug it in when you are on a break.

From talking to drivers, we understand that most London cabbies do about 120miles per day, so that is very realistic.

Are there plans to bring the retrofit to market? Have Transport for London (TfL) or any other licensing authorities shown interest?

Yes most certainly, we built a few on different plates now, we have an ‘07 as well as a ‘62 for example. We did a TX2 as the very first prototype too, but we are deliberately focusing on the TX4s at the moment. We get approached by people to do Fairways, wedding vehicles and some such, who we politely have to decline at the moment. We are very deliberate in our focus on the taxi trade for now, because they are real working vehicles that will make a difference to air quality in city centres. Changing someone's luxury weekend convertible to be electric is all fair and well, but it makes a much bigger difference to change vehicles that are driven a lot!

You asked about TfL and licensing. We are engaging with licensing offices across the country, I have emailed dozens of them in 2020 to test the water, and we are just now re-engaging with them. TfL want what is called type-approval and that costs a fortune and might include multiple crash tests, so we are carefully looking elsewhere first. Some smaller cities have been very welcoming, and will accept our vehicles with an extra inspection per vehicle, so that is what we are really after. As a matter of fact, if you are a driver outside London and think this would be great for your city: get in touch with us, tell us where you are, tell us who your local trade representative is, and let your licensing officer know that you want this (you can reach me at [e-mail]).
How much will it cost and could there be an option to offer the retrofits outside of London?

The big question! We understand that this can only be a success when the price is right, one of the new hybrid taxis costs £70,000 if you factor all the bells and whistles in, the van is at £50,000, so we are looking at £39,950 + VAT which makes us the most affordable option already. Now, that is still a lot of money, so we are discussing with financing partners how that can be offered at a lower monthly rate.

But that is buying, I don’t think that's our most enticing offer just yet, much more interesting initially is try before you buy! We will rent them out at competitive rates, a diesel cab can be rented at £230, and then you have ~£30 worth of fuel per day with it, so realistically you pay £380 per week to drive currently.

We are aiming for £230 per week. And the fuel savings are for the driver. Charging this all the way up costs £4 or so I think, so even if you charge twice a day you are winning. It is cheaper if you charge them overnight at home.

Once a few of you have tried these in a realistic environment I am sure they are interesting for purchase as well. This only works if it is affordable enough for drivers, which is why we are very driven to offer these at the lowest price that we can.

If you are interested, drop me an email, the numbers will be strictly limited in 2022, so we will have to rent them on a first come first served basis.
Should funding be offered by Government to help fund diesel to electric retrofitting on taxis?

Ha! Yes, I mean that is the story here really. Drivers choosing to go electric benefit not only the passengers, but every single bystander benefits from it! Everybody who stands at a junction next to one of our electric vehicles benefits from breathing cleaner air, so why shouldn’t the local councils help their drivers to make a choice that is good for everyone? Solar panels on the roof were subsidised on homes, people are encouraged to eat less meat, the NHS helps you to quit smoking with classes, why not make switching to electric even more attractive by giving drivers a little extra to sweeten the transition?

Bringing this all the way back to licensing, some licensing offices tell us about their age limits which were meant to encourage you to switch from Euro4 to Euro5 and then Euro6. Now they tell us we can’t drive an ‘07 plate because it is bad for the environment, even though we turned it into Euro999, or EuroInfinity by removing the emissions altogether, that has been frustrating at times. In other councils that was less of a problem and they said we can have long extensions on the vehicle lifetime. One council even said we can run them indefinitely. Then sometimes people say: “Well, why would I want to spend so much money on an old car?” That is the point! It is meant to be older and older, we think of it as not the-next-taxi you buy, but instead the last taxi you ever have to buy!

Once they are all electric, that’s it, you might have to swap the batteries out every decade or so - and batteries are getting cheaper and cheaper every year, so why not stick to the chassis for good? We are next to a fleet operator and “regular”; taxi mechanic and he has a customer's Fairway there. Aren’t they gorgeous! They just re-sprayed it, treated it for some rust and the owner is hoping to drive it for many more years, and he should, maybe get an electric upgrade for it at some point from us, but why throw something away that looks great, and replace it every 12 years? That’s the whole point here really, to make them electric and then you can drive a TX4 forevermore.

So, yes please, if you are reading this, and you want to have our all-electric black cabs in your city: 1) tell your councillor, 2) tell licensing about it, 3) tell us where you are and who your local representatives are. We are currently doing demo days around the southeast, but will come to any city in England where licensing, council and drivers want us. You can email me at [e-mail].

Perry it was nice to talk to you, let’s have another chat in summer and I will tell you about the first drivers collecting real fares with our vehicles, which will be a great milestone for us, that we are really looking forward to, it will be very exciting!

[la forge] 22/1/2018 09:31

Jan 22
Shell eyes London cabs

Shell subsidiary FarePilot has applied for a private taxi cab licence with Transport for London and is talking to drivers about a new service to take on Uber. FarePilot says it was launched to help private operators earn more money and spend less time on the road.

“Our customer hotspot recommendations use a variety of data sources to predict customer demand in a city, helping drivers save time, petrol and earn more,” it says. “Our clever algorithm also takes traffic and driver supply into account, guiding drivers away from areas of dense supply – lots of drivers – and heavy congestion.”

FarePilot has already rolled out in Los Angeles and New York and is looking to expand to priority cities in the US and Europe.

For Shell, this move is a service-side push of a broad transport policy that sees the oil giant developing a range of energy solutions. In Germany, for example, the company has been busy developing a hydrogen network, H2 Mobility, and last week announced that it planned to build the world's largest hydrogen electrolysis facility in the German Rhineland.

The Refhyne plant, which secured €10m in funding from the European Fuel Cell Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, is scheduled to come onstream in 2020.
brand-e
Transport
London, Shell, transport

[bigbigdave] 08/9/2013 07:29

Rescuers restart black cab production
Production of the classic black cab – a symbol of British industry – will resume on Wednesday nearly a year after the London Taxi Company went into administration and made 136 workers redundant.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will launch the return to full operations at the Coventry factory.
The company, founded in 1919, was rescued by Li Shufu, of Shanghai-based Geely Automotive, and Volvo, in February for £11.4m. The Chinese businessman has pledged £150m for development of new models, including innovative ultra-low emissions taxis.
After rehiring 15 members of the former workforce, LTC has spent the past six months modernising its brand.
The strategy is to build long-term relationships with UK taxi owners, the self-styled "Gucci drivers", who like to upgrade cabs every three to four years.
Peter Johansen, vice- president of Geely UK's black cab operation, said: "Customers are already responding. We've taken orders for 200 vehicles to Saudi Arabia and another 200 vehicles to Australia."

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/10293818/Rescuers-restart-black-cab-production.html

[diku] 03/2/2013 19:29

A good deal for Geely and the Board...

[legg96] 03/2/2013 18:37

Diku,

They have bought to assets for £11m which have been placed in a newco. That means the creditors in the oldco. have lost money and there is nothing for the shareholders. A good deal for Geely. Just as I predicted months ago.

[diku] 03/2/2013 15:13

There ought to be an investigation into the Board and Geely....was it a delibrate ploy to send MNGS into a slow death admin hence they didn't support the RI when price was around 50p....if the assests are good for them now then why didn't they just buy the company when the shares were still traded?....

[stevi111] 02/2/2013 08:54

Financial Times: Manganese Bronze, maker of London "black cabs", has been sold to Geely, the private Chinese carmaker that already owns Volvo, for £11 million.

[stevi111] 02/2/2013 08:54

No it isnt iNside...The guy is that picture was on ADVFN...He was called Harry Punter.

[inside2] 01/2/2013 17:55

I hear this is our old friend JakNife

[strollingmolby] 07/11/2012 10:16

Good for Eco City ?

[diku] 22/10/2012 14:31

Tell tale signs were there when the very recent results date was postponed for the second time.....would anybody now really believe those numbers?....

[toffeeman] 22/10/2012 14:18

Hindsight is wonderful innit? Foresight is better

post 866 12 August 2010

[legg96] 22/10/2012 13:32

As predicted the administrators are to appointed.

[diku] 22/10/2012 13:12

The board are having a laugh....Olympics was the kiss of death....

The question somebody ought to be asking is when was the board aware of the gearbox problems?....this is a case of entire board failure...

The Board remains hopeful that the fundamental strengths of the company, the TX4 model and its global reputation will provide the platform for a successful business in the future.

[boonkoh] 18/10/2012 11:04

The question you have to ask is... what does Geely gain from pumping more money into Manganese Bronze?

Losing market share to Eco City, and next year Nissan and maybe other manufacturers will enter the market.

Geely thought it could sell the iconic design in China and also other countries, as well as reduce manufacturing costs by leveraging its expertise in car & parts manufacturing in China. Both of which have been exposed as not very successful.

So while they have already ploughed so much into Manganese Bronze, are they willing to invest even more? Is it a case of throwing good money after bad if they do?

The only upside is distribution of Geely cars into the UK. But lets face it, Manganese Bronze don't really have a big consumer facing dealer network, and their marketing expertise is not to general consumers, but to cabbies. Very B2B type model rather than B2C.