Famous London black taxi could soon be green

The famous black taxi of London could soon get a green makeover with the news that Manganese Bronze, the Coventry-based maker of the black cabs, is working on an electric version of its TX4 cab. The company will be working in partnership with Tanfield, the specialist electric car designer and developer. The green plug-in taxi should be available by the middle of 2009.

The electric version of the black cab will be able to run for at least 100 miles on a single charge of its lithiumion battery. The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) estimates that the average taxi driver drives around 120 to 150 miles a day.

Aside from the environmental benefits, the main advantage of the new electric taxi for drivers will be the running costs. At today’s electricity prices, the green taxi will cost about 4p per mile to run. According to the LTDA, the average spend on diesel, which the vast majority of taxis run on, is £70 to £80 a week, making the cost per mile between 8.5p and 9.3p.

An LTDA spokesman gave the green taxi a cautious green light: “It depends how much it is going to cost. But taxi drivers are very reasonable people. Anything that is clean and green will be good for taxi drivers and the community and they will back it. If it makes economic sense, of course they will support it.”

The downside of the new electric taxi will be the inital cost of the cab, which is already an expensive item costing between £30,000 and £43,000 depending on specification. Taxi drivers will also need to remember to plug in their vehicles overnight, with the battery taking around six hours to charge from flat.

An LTDA spokesman gave the green taxi a cautious green light: “It depends how much it is going to cost. But taxi drivers are very reasonable people. Anything that is clean and green will be good for taxi drivers and the community and they will back it. If it makes economic sense, of course they will support it.”