London taxi drivers could soon have one less thing to complain about - or one more. The capital’s black cab drivers, who are famous for their opinions on all aspects of life, may begin next year helping to reduce pollution in the city with the introduction of plug-in electric taxis.

Manganese Bronze, the Coventry-based maker of the black cabs, plans to ramp up its green credentials by working on an electric version of its TX4 cab. The company will work with Tanfield, the specialist electric car designer and developer. The plug-in taxi is planned to be available by the middle of 2009.

The green version of the black cab will be able to run for at least 100 miles on one charge of its lithiumion battery. The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) estimates that the average driver clocks up between 120 and 150 miles a day.

The upside for the drivers will be the running costs. At today’s electricity prices, the green taxi will cost about 4p per mile to run. According to the LTDA, the average spend on diesel, which the vast majority of taxis run on, is £70 to £80 a week, making the cost per mile between 8.5p and 9.3p.

Like other professional drivers, taxi drivers have suffered escalating costs in recent months. Yesterday the price of oil hit a new record at $118.59 a barrel.

The downside will be the cost of the cab, already an expensive item. Manganese has said that the electric version would cost more than the standard engine, but has yet to set a figure. Depending on the desired specification, a new black cab costs between £30,000 and £43,000.

Taxi drivers will also need to remember to plug in their vehicles overnight. It takes six hours to charge from flat, with a fast charge of 25 per cent in one hour.

An LTDA spokesman gave the green taxi a cautious green light: “It depends how much it is going to cost. But taxi drivers are very reasonable people. Anything that is clean and green will be good for taxi drivers and the community and they will back it. If it makes economic sense, of course they will support it.”

London taxis already have some green credentials in terms of how long they last compared with ordinary vehicles and the higher mileage rate of diesel engines compared with standard petrol. A black cab can last up to 20 years because it is serviced and repaired more frequently than passenger cars.

If the green cabs prove successful, they could find their way on to the streets of China through Manganese’s joint venture Shanghai LTI. The company will soon start production of its taxis in China.

Manganese chose to develop an all-electric car rather than a hybrid electric/petrol model because it is using technology already established by Tanfield. Tanfield makes all-electric vehicles for Sainsbury’s and TNT, among other customers. Last year sales of its electric cars rose 37 per cent to £26 million. This year it expects to raise production from 260 vehicles last year to between 875 and 1,100.

Last week Tanfield unveiled two new vehicles based on Ford cars as it works with the American carmaker to develop zero emissions versions of its cars. The US market is more receptive to electric cars than Europe at present.

Darren Kell, chief executive of Tanfield, said of its work on London black cabs: “This partnership will create a unique and highly marketable zero emissions vehicle.”

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