In many of the world’s great cities, becoming a cab driver requires little more than the ability to operate a motor vehicle with modest proficiency. In some—we’re thinking New York City—perhaps not even that. But London is different, with the 23,000 or so cabbies who ply their trade in the British capital all having to pass a fearsome test known simply as The Knowledge to prove they have mastered the geography of one of Europe’s biggest cities. Achieving this normally takes between two and four years with only two out of every 10 people who start the process making it to the end. To get the official cab driver’s badge, hopefuls have to prove they have effectively memorized tens of thousands of roads within a six-mile radius of the city’s official center, Charing Cross.

Which is why the first of many surprises delivered from the lofty driver’s seat of the new TX taxi from the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is finding a navigation screen in the center of the dashboard. What self-respecting London cab driver is going to use that?

London Economics

Although known as black cabs, London’s taxis come in many colors, and their distinctive design puts them high on the list of British automotive icons. Yet the economics of making such specialist vehicles are challenging. London’s taxi drivers buy or lease only around 3000 new cabs a year, with that figure representing the vast majority of overall sales in Britain; most of the U.K.’s lesser towns and cities take the capital’s castoffs.

Then there are the unique requirements of the Conditions of Fitness that regulate the design of these official Hackney carriages, the most onerous being the requirement that they can U-turn between two curbs just 28 feet apart. They must also have a rear floor no more than 15 inches from the ground and be capable of carrying passengers in wheelchairs. This prevents conventional cars from working as black cabs; a Mercedes-Benz Vito van with an added electrically steered rear axle was marketed as an alternative to traditional London cabs in recent years but has sold in only modest numbers.

Black and Green

Things got much tougher this January, with a new regulation from the city’s taxi-licensing authority, Transport for London, requiring all newly registered cabs to be zero-emissions capable, effectively ending sales of the old diesel-powered TX4 and the Vito.

And so, the new TX—which has been designed and built by Geely subsidiary LEVC, which was itself previously known as the London Taxi Company—is a plug-in hybrid. It has a 31.0-kWh battery pack and a 148-hp electric motor on the rear axle and is claimed to be capable of up to 80 miles of range in London’s low-speed grind. Beyond that it has to be recharged, either by plugging into a power source or, on the move, by an onboard Volvo-sourced turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-three gasoline engine.

Before driving the cutting edge that is the new TX, we have a chance to experience the considerably blunter appeal of its predecessor. The TX4 was the ultimate development of a model introduced as long ago as 1997 and is powered by a VM Motori diesel inline-four that produces just 101 horsepower from 2.5 liters. Our test car has just been taken as a trade-in and has covered 120,000 miles in three years on London’s streets.

The TX4 is basic, crude, and surprisingly uncomfortable given the typical 8-to-10-hour shift of a self-employed London cabbie. The driving position is offset to the extent that the dashboard will rub the left leg of even shorter drivers—and Cockneys are not usually a tall people (setting aside famous fake Cockney Dick Van Dyke, at least). Switchgear is distributed around the dashboard with little logic, most of it being old-fashioned rocker switches. The engine seems to have come from the dawn of combustion, filling the cabin with noise and vibration. It has plenty of torque but no enthusiasm beyond its grumbling basement. The suspension manages to be both soft and crashy at the same time, rolling under modest loads but also delivering jarring impacts over London’s many speed bumps. While it’s fun to be driving such an iconic vehicle, we’re glad not to be putting in a full day.

In With the New

Switching to the latest model feels like a leap of several generations. It keeps the high, upright seating position of the TX4 but loses the overintimate dashboard and offers much more shoulder room. The driving compartment is light and airy thanks to the low beltline, with the switchgear all coming from Volvo, another Geely subsidiary. The TX has digital instruments similar to those of the XC90, plus a version of its large, portrait-oriented central touchscreen, which has the heretical navigation system as well as controls for the various driving modes.

Despite its internal-combustion engine, the TX is fundamentally an EV and works electrically whenever it can. There is a Save mode that uses the gasoline engine to keep the battery level constant; since many cabbies commute considerable distances, this will enable them to reach central London with a full battery pack. Trying this mode confirmed that the three-cylinder engine is quiet and well insulated when running—and not just compared to the steel-drum symphony of the TX4’s diesel—but otherwise, all of our two-hour drive was conducted using electric power.

Although not fast, the TX is plenty quick enough and markedly more so than the lethargic TX4. It sets off briskly from stoplights and accelerates without effort to a cruising speed in reasonable proximity to the 30-mph limit that covers much of London. Patrick Follen, a 20-year-veteran cabbie who helped develop the TX and is our guide for the day, reckons it can exceed 70 mph when unleashed on the motorway run to Heathrow Airport.

The TX ticks most EV boxes. There is a faint, but obvious, subway-train soundtrack under acceleration and a powerful regeneration effect when lifting off the accelerator; this can be switched between two levels or off, but even the most aggressive still requires the brake pedal for a complete halt. There is an auto brake-hold function, too, which Follen says is a huge benefit. Older cabs required the brake pedal to be pressed when stationary to keep the rear doors electrically locked and lessen the risk of passengers escaping without paying their fares.

But it is the ride and refinement that impress most. In place of the TX4’s body-on-frame construction, the TX uses an aluminum unibody with composite panels. The considerable mass of its battery means that it is some 550 pounds heavier than the TX4—LEVC quotes 4916 pounds—yet it feels considerably more deft and agile on the road. The suspension is supple enough to roll with London’s punches, and it feels wieldier than its mass and dimensions suggest, having the magical ability to U-turn in impossibly small spaces thanks to the front wheels’ ability to turn up to 68 degrees.

Black cabs don’t have front passenger seats, so Follen delivers navigational guidance from the rear passenger compartment, amplified by an intercom system. A cross-city drive to Blackfriars gives us the chance to cross the River Thames and also to find one of the new network of taxi-only fast chargers. There are only a handful of TXs running at present, but as more arrive, competition for these 50-kW points will get tougher. They’re capable of providing up to an 80 percent charge in just 20 minutes. With cabbies earning only when their wheels are turning, minimizing downtime is critically important.

The return to LEVC’s huge garage at Camden gives us a chance to experience the TX from the rear. The materials have been chosen for their durability, with dark-gray plastics and a similar seat fabric to those used in Europe’s commuter trains. There are six seats, three being fold-down rear-facing positions. It’s a big space—London cabs don’t have trunk space for customers, so any luggage has to ride either back here or up front where the passenger seat isn’t—with impressive ride quality even for those sitting over the rear axle. The demonstrator also has a panoramic glass roof, which is particularly nice when driving through the skyscrapers of London’s financial district.

Then and Now

There’s a neat circularity at play here. London’s first non-horse-drawn taxis were also electric. The Bersey Hummingbird was introduced in 1897, and its top speed of 12 mph actually is higher than the current average of inner-London traffic. Although those early e-taxis were soon replaced by internal-combustion units, the prospects of this new one look far better.

Taxis aren’t cheap. In its most basic form, the TX costs roughly £44,500 ($63,000 at current exchange rates). That’s with a £7500 electric-vehicle grant from the British government applied and before the U.K.’s 20 percent VAT sales tax is added. Most drivers will lease instead of buying outright, and although LEVC admits the TX is more expensive than its predecessors, the company claims that drivers will save an average of $140 per week on fuel (a gallon of diesel currently costs the equivalent of about $6.50 in London).

LEVC is planning to use the same core architecture in other vehicles, including zero-emission commercial vehicles. The TX will be exported as well, with orders already received from the Netherlands and the Middle East. Sadly, there are no plans to bring it to the United States. Which is a shame, as it is a vastly more elegant and distinguished machine than the homely, Indiana-built Mobility Ventures MV-1 and the gawky Nissan NV200 taxi. Wouldn’t it look good in a yellow livery?

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