“What’s it like, any good?”
A cabbie has pulled up alongside me on the run from Regent’s Park to King’s Cross and is admiring the next-gen black cab I’m testing. “It’s decent,” I say. “Sweet,” he says. “I can see myself cutting up some serious buses in that!” Before I can respond, he’s of, thrusting his TX4 across the path of an unsuspecting doubledecker as he heads towards St Pancras.
The TX eCity I’m in has been attracting attention like this all day. Young and old look on with curiosity. They’re pointing, taking pictures, or jabbing their friends in the ribs to look at the long-overdue replacement for the London black cab. Most of them seem to like it, and while I’m not immediately convinced, it’s growing on me.
It’s a slow-burner, because I have a love-hate relationship with London taxis. I chose one to help me win a TopGear high-miler challenge in Kazakhstan just over a year ago because they’re bulletproof, handsome and I wanted to bring a bit of British culture to Central Asia. But as cool as they are, they’ve been of almost no use to me over the years.
Getting one to stop for me has often been an exercise in futility, and when they do, getting a driver that would take me home, south of the river, well – let’s just say many taxi drivers would rather drive to Mordor than anywhere near Morden.
Uber, mini cabs and epic journeys on vomit-flled night buses are more my thing, but here I am, sat in the latest evolution of London’s Hackney Carriage, sort of enjoying it.
I plant my right foot half expecting a rattly old diesel, but instead there’s a distant, futuristic whir. I’m expecting nasty, agricultural vibrations that tremble through my entire body – a defning feature of older black cabs – but there aren’t any. I’m expecting it to crash over speed bumps like a drunken hippo, but the suspension is well-damped, smooth. It feels modern. New. Nice.
Its power source is certainly on the futuristic side. It uses a plug-in hybrid powertrain: a petrol engine with a single electric
motor driving the rear wheels, a combination that gives the potential for lively acceleration. Potential and reality are two diferent beasts, however, and it soon becomes apparent that the eCity is not built for speed.
There are no Tesla-style surges of grunt here – quite the opposite, in fact. It’s ponderous. Last-minute darts in or out of side streets or onto roundabouts become unwanted games of chicken with oncoming trafc. Torque increases signifcantly above 15mph, with a surge of acceleration kicking in, almost like an old-school turbo. But at low speed, I have to trust whoever’s bearing down on me to hit the brakes instead of speeding up, or wait for clearer gaps in trafc.
All of this is deliberate, of course. The eCity’s maker, the London Electric Vehicle Company, has neutered performance at low speed because by default it can be a bit wild. Its motor is so powerful and its tyres are so skinny that deploying full force from zero
“I’m expecting agricultural vibrations but there aren’t any”
rpm would result in squealing tyres and constant skids. Without onboard computers limiting torque, cabbies would be drifting from landmark to landmark in a cloud of tyre smoke, Ken Block style. It would look great, of course, but it might be a tad controversial.
The lack of outright performance also makes for a more economical drive. Energy for the electric motor is supplied by a lithium-ion battery, which gives the TX eCity a batteryonly range of 80 miles. That’s pretty paltry by modern EV standards, but once the battery level reaches around 20 per cent, a 1.3-litre petrol engine located under the bonnet fres up to act as an electricity generator. This pours yet more electrons into the battery pack for a total range of 400 miles – enough for a non-stop trip from London to Edinburgh.
The eCity was built with investment and resources from Chinese carmaker Geely, owners of Volvo. Geely has invested £330m in LEVC, largely on a new factory in Coventry, capable of producing 24,000 cars a year. Not all those will be black cabs for London, though – there’s a light commercial vehicle based on the same platform coming next year.
Unsurprisingly then, the new taxi inherits a very modern, Volvo-like feel. The cabin is littered with bits borrowed from Volvo’s latest oferings, including the steering wheel, seats and infotainment display of an S90. These are supplemented by taxi-specifc bits to keep drivers happy during long stints. There are endless cubbies for sandwiches, maps and other paperwork, cupholders, and a ‘passenger’ compartment next to the driver (with no seat) large enough for a few big bags.
There’s a handy central touchscreen, too, which lets you adjust how the car feels to drive. I fnd the steering a bit heavy in its default setting, but you can lighten things up with just a few taps of the display. The pedals are good – incredibly light, delivering progressive acceleration and braking, reducing the risk of your passenger’s kebab making a colourful reappearance.
Braking isn’t always necessary, in fact, as the regenerative braking system does a good job of scrubbing of speed. The gear-selector switch lets you increase the aggressiveness of the harvesting, and thus can be used to slow the car more quickly. I soon learn to drive with the accelerator and the gear-selector, using the brake only to come to a complete stop.
Being electric, the eCity also delivers a pretty serene passenger experience. The decision to move away from diesel was clearly rooted in reducing emissions, but it’s provided the added beneft of making a quieter, more peaceful ride for all occupants.
The TX eCity seats a total of six passengers at the rear; three forward-facing and three rear-facing in fip-down seats. The forwardfacing passengers seats are reasonably nice, with the centre seat pushed forward slightly so the two outer passengers aren’t forced to rub elbows with the middle one. The three rear-facing seats are ofset in a similar fashion, but they’re noticeably less plush – fne for short journeys, but you wouldn’t want to be stuck there testing that London to Edinburgh claim.
There are some creature comforts. Passengers get a pair of USB ports in the rear, so you can charge your phones, and there’s a three-pin power socket if you want to recharge something a bit more heavy duty, like a laptop. Or use a hairdryer.
As you’d expect, the TX eCity includes a slide-out wheelchair ramp for easy access (wheelchairs can be bolted down securely inside) and the option of a panoramic sunroof so you can easily take Instagram snaps of Big Ben and kamikaze pigeons.
It’s a great taxi, then, but the biggest issue looming over its success is cost. Taxi drivers will have to shell out £55,000 to own one, when the previous-gen model can be had for £45,945. In TG maths, that’s a diference of about £35 per week over fve years. However, based on the average cabbie covering 120 miles a day, they’d be saving £100 a week on fuel, maybe more if they can get a 45min top-up via one of the 300 taxi-specifc fast chargers planned for London by the end of 2018.
But I won’t be deleting the Uber app yet (they go south of the river), and there’s every chance you may spot me upstairs in the back of a night bus, fast asleep having missed my stop several miles ago, but the eCity has won me over. Long live the new London black cab.
“The cabin is littered with bits borrowed from Volvo”