Administration was brutal,” recalls engineer Steve Fitter. “The place was deserted. People’s desks were left how they were. It was like the Mary Celeste.” Fitter is remembering the dark days of October 2012, when the London Taxi Company, one of the last auto makers in Coventry, almost went out of business.

LTC was saved by Chinese car giant Geely, owner of Volvo, which last month opened a new plant in Ansty, north Coventry – the first new car factory in the UK since 2003, and the only one wholly dedicated to electric vehicles. The new TX5 electric cab will hit London’s streets at the end of the year. “Geely buying LTC was a relief,” says Fitter. “Since then there’s been a phenomenal change in mindset, culture, training.”

The taxi company’s rebirth is symbolic of a wider motoring renaissance in Coventry, which has a population of 345,000. Once home to dozens of famous names, from Triumph and Daimler to Rootes and Peugeot, most of its manufacturing has fallen away. So how is Coventry laying claim to its name as a motor city?