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London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is a British premium commercial and passenger vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Ansty, Coventry, Warwickshire, England. Originally founded in 1908 as the coachbuilding dealership Mann & Overton, the company underwent multiple historic industrial mutations—operating for decades as the London Taxis International (LTI) group and The London Taxi Company—before being completely acquired by China's Geely in 2013.
Operating out of Great Britain's first ever dedicated, ultra-modern New Energy vehicle (NEV) mega-factory complex in Ansty, Coventry, LEVC hand-builds highly specialized range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs) and full-enclosure smart passenger vans, mobilizing international metropolitan transit networks from London to Frankfurt and Shanghai.
The Carriage Genesis and the Austin FX4 Hegemony (1908–1983)
The corporate lineage began in London when car dealers Mann & Overton partnered with engine builders to commission a specialized taxicab that complied with Scotland Yard’s strict licensing parameters. In 1948, they teamed up with coachbuilder Carbodies and vehicle giant Austin to engineer the Austin FX3.
In 1958, the triumvirate executed an engineering masterstroke that permanently defined the visual identity of Great Britain: the rollout of the Austin FX4. Clothed in a sweeping, high-roofed, glossy black paintwork body featuring prominent round headlamps and separate indicator pods, the FX4 became an absolute cultural phenomenon. It stayed in continuous evolutionary high-volume production for an astonishing 39 years, turning the "London Black Cab" into a universal global symbol of British national identity alongside Big Ben and red double-decker buses.
The LTI Consolidation and the Manganese Bronze Era (1984–2012)
In 1984, the parent industrial holding syndicate, Manganese Bronze Holdings, combined Mann & Overton and Carbodies into a single, high-capacity unified manufacturer: London Taxis International (LTI). Retooling the Coventry foundries, LTI launched the modernised TX1 (1997), TX2, and TX4 series.
By dropping bulletproof Nissan and VM Motori turbodiesel engines straight inside their ultra-rigid steel ladder frames, these cabs became legendary icons of mechanical longevity, routinely passing ** past 500,000 miles of city traffic idling** without a single structural failure. However, facing escalating global emissions regulations and intense cash-flow pressures from component supplier recalls, the boutique British builder entered financial restructuring in 2012.
The Geely Breakthrough and the Range-Extended TX (2013–2022)
In February 2013, the global Chinese automotive giant Geely completed a 100% corporate acquisition of the company, saving the historic British institution from liquidation. Geely injected hundreds of millions of pounds into Warwickshire, building an entirely new, zero-emission automotive factory in Ansty, Coventry, and re-branding the marque as the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) in 2017.
In 2018, LEVC unleashed its absolute technical masterpiece: the LEVC TX eCity. Tearing up old diesel frameworks, LEVC engineers designed a radical Range-Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV). It featured an ultra-lightweight, aerospace-grade bonded aluminium spaceframe chassis packed with a high-capacity electric motor on the rear axle, paired with a tiny Volvo-engineered petrol engine functioning strictly as an onboard generator.
The TX eCity became an absolute commercial stampede, single-handedly converting London’s public transit fleet into a clean-air enclave, saving millions of tonnes of carbon emissions while expanding exports into Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo.
The SOA Space Matrix Expansion (2023–Present)
Entering the mid-2020s, heavily backed by Geely’s unified advanced technology laboratories, LEVC executed a massive multi-industry scaling leap. They debuted the SOA (Space Oriented Architecture) Platform, a cutting-edge, high-voltage pure electric modular architecture designed to maximize cabin floorplan flatness.
The brand launched the LEVC L380—an ultra-luxury, full-electric zero-emission flagship multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) named directly after the Airbus A380 jumbo jet. Packing advanced high-density battery electric arrays capable of rapid 10-minute ultra-fast charging metrics and multi-row executive first-class seating lounges, LEVC has successfully future-proofed its historic spatial packaging legacy for the 21st-century green intelligent mobility economy.
LEVC’s vehicle line-up utilizes a dual-platform strategy, splitting operations between specialized range-extended commercial platforms and next-generation pure electric vehicle architectures:
Range-Extended Commercial Vehicles (eCity Tech)
These platforms utilize a series-hybrid powertrain consisting of a 31-kWh lithium-ion battery paired with a 1.5-litre Volvo petrol engine that acts purely as an on-board generator, offering a combined range exceeding 300 miles:
Pure Electric Luxury Vehicles (SOA Platform)
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