It is supposed to look like a traditional black cab, although the plan is that it won’t feel like one and certainly won’t drive like one.
The new London taxi, the fourth iteration since 1948 of the world’s most recognisable hackney cab, is to be unveiled today. When the engineers have finished, it will be a plug-in hybrid capable of running around London on a battery-driven electric motor for at least 30 miles before being recharged or switched over to its conventional engine.
For modernity it will have six seats — rather than the present four and a half — and be fully wheelchair accessible. However, with a nod to historical regulations, it has to retain the tight turning circle that can get it round the Savoy’s forecourt and, with no front passenger seat, have enough luggage space for at least a bale of hay.
The new cab, the TX5 — the first images of which are being shown today by The Times — is funded from China by Geely, the automotive group that bought the London Taxi Company from administrators in early 2013. The £250 million project, part-financed through UK taxpayer grants, will be delivered in Britain’s newest vehicle assembly plant, being built north of Coventry.
The burden of creating the new black cab has fallen on to the shoulders of two expatriate Britons — David Ancona, who runs Geely’s automotive design studio in Barcelona, and Peter Horbury, the group’s chief designer, a graduate of the Royal College of Art 40 years ago who has spent a career designing Aston Martins, Jaguars and Volvos.
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“The design brief was deceptively simple,” Mr Ancona said. “It had to have the lineage of a London taxi and project the traditional image of London: the black cab in front of the red Routemaster bus, in front of Big Ben. It has to be instantly recognisable but like no other vehicle. New, but not new.”
For Mr Ancona, the new TX5 must definitely not look like the large Mercedes Vito taxi that has come into the market.“They took a van, painted it black and called it a cab”. Nor should it have, he contends, the rounded contours of the present generation of TX4 black cabs, whose aesthetics he dismisses as “looking like they were designed by the Aardman animation studios”.
His inspiration instead is the classic 1958 FX4 series of cabs and the much-loved Fairway model. That has meant the reintroduction of the front-opening “suicide doors”, which are meant to give the feel of stepping into a limousine. It has also meant a restatement of trademark characteristics: a large and vertical front grille, big round headlamps.
What Geely also demanded of the design team was a commercial response. The new TX5 could not be fatter but it must incorporate a bench seat for three plus three flip-down seats — like the Mercedes van-cabs. It also needed to enlarge and improve the ergonomics of the driver’s cab. That has all meant a more upright vehicle, 2 inches taller and nearly a foot longer but the same breadth.
Crucially, it is due to come in at the same weight, give or take a few kilograms. Carrying the large batteries that make the vehicle an electric hybrid means constructing in lightweight aluminium, casting the panels in composite materials and putting in a glass roof, which has the benefit of making the cab a sight-seeing tool too.
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“You can imagine what it means taking responsibility for one of the great icons of the industry,” Mr Horbury says. “There has been a lot of emotion in this project. It is the only purpose-built taxi in the world. You cannot set out to design an icon, and in this we were dealing with something that is already an icon.”
According to Mr Ancona: “We could have gone conceptual, we could have gone avant-garde. But the London taxi needs presence and a sense of authority. If we have got it wrong, it will haunt us for the rest of our lives.”
Knowledge of the road
Geely, the new owner of the London Taxi Company, has taken its big gamble on all-new hybrid black cabs because of rules that will come in to force on January 1, 2018.
From then, all new taxis or private hire vehicles will have to be “zero-emission capable”, defined as running on an electric motor for at least 30 miles. The new rules have prompted the return from the grave of the old Metrocab brand, whose owner, Frazer-Nash Research, is also looking to launch range-extended electric London taxis.
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The rules led Nissan to ditch its plans to go into London taxis and they are being challenged by minicab firms, such as Addison Lee, which claim the 30-mile regulation rules out its fleet of Toyota Prius hybrids, which have a zero-emission range of no more than 19 miles. A final ruling on the regulations is due imminently from Boris Johnson, the mayor.