Electric taxis prove a turn-off for most London cabbies living on the edge

London

The London cabbie comes in a variety of guises. He's either very friendly, perhaps over-talkative, or a bolshie type who turns up the radio when you ask a question. He's a West Ham fan or a Spurs follower - you never meet an Arsenal or Chelsea cabbie. He listens to Talksport phone-in radio and then spouts sport all the journey or imbibes BBC Radio 4.

Then there's the ranting right-winger who assumes you share his views, or the amiable, but lesser-spotted liberal (possibly listening to Radio 4).

Now there's a new distinction: the 'innies' and 'outies' - those who live in central London and those in outer London. It's important, at least for the makers of the soon-to-be-launched electric-powered black cab: the TX4E.

The innies are largely for it - against are the outies of suburbs such as Gants Hill, known in cab parlance as Green Badge Valley, after the colour of the cabbie's badge and with a large ratio of London's 25,000 drivers living there.

'I'd take it up, definitely,' says John, taking a late-night fare. 'I'm all for environmentalism. And I bet it's cheaper to run. Still, I'm not exactly your normal cabbie.' (John is, indeed, listening to Radio 4). 'There's thousands of cabbies who won't have it - purely for sentimental reasons. We're silly like that, us cabbies.'