London black cabs set for trial in the city by middle of next year
London-style black cabs could be on the streets of Hong Kong by the middle of next year for a trial run.
Shanghai LTI - the joint venture formed by Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile Holdings and England LTI - said the area around the airport was one of the sites chosen for the feasibility study.
'Eventually we want to have many London black cabs running along the streets in Hong Kong,' said Matthew Cheyne, England LTI's sales and marketing director, after meeting industry players yesterday.
Zhao Fuquan, vice-president of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group - a unit of Geely Automobile - said last month the mainland's biggest privately owned carmaker had been invited by the Hong Kong government to supply the iconic London taxis.
Zhejiang Geely bought a 23 per cent stake in the taxi maker last year as part of a deal to set up a US$101 million venture to make them in Shanghai.
Geely Automobile is working with the Hong Kong Productivity Council on the LTI London TX4 taxi project, which will run on liquefied petroleum gas and match new Euro IV emissions standards.
By using the mainland as the manufacturing base for the Asian market, production costs could be slashed by 50 per cent.
The black cab costs GBP40,000 (HK$621,034) in Britain. Made on the mainland they could sell in Hong Kong for HK$250,000 to HK$300,000, said Lawrence Ang Siulun, executive director of Geely Automobile.
Geely plans to roll out the taxis on the mainland by the end of next year, priced between 180,000 yuan and 250,000 yuan. Geely is developing a factory in Shanghai that will be able to make 20,000 taxis a year.
There are 18,138 Toyota and Nissan taxis in Hong Kong, according to the Transport Department.
