LEVC TO DROP MORE WORKERS

Almost 40 jobs are to go at the Coventry company which makes the iconic London taxi.

The latest announcement from the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) comes just weeks after the company revealed it was set to reduce the workforce by 70 - around a fifth of the total headcount.

The initial round of job cuts on January 29 affected only agency staff but this time around 20 permanent staff are affected, along with a further 20 contractors.

The first job cuts were revealed last month just 24 hours after Prince Charles was given a guided tour of the plant at the Ansty Business Park, on the edge of the city.

The company was for many years based on Holyhead Road not far from the city centre but its operations are now at Ansty Park, where it produces its electric London taxi - the TX.

An LEVC spokesman said: “LEVC’s TX eCity has been extremely well received by the market and we expect demand to continue to grow significantly in 2019.

“As part of our efforts to improve our operations and weather more challenging economic conditions in 2019 we are reorganising some business functions which will lead to a reduction of less than 20 full time positions and the release of a similar number of contractors.

“We have communicated the changes to unions and are in discussions from today with those employees likely to be affected.”

When the first job losses were announced one production worker told CoventryLive it had not come as a total surprise.

The worker, who did not wish to be named, said: “We all knew this was coming, but we didn’t know the amount.”

Formerly the London Taxi Company, LEVC moved to its new home in Ansty Park two years ago.

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LEICESTER

 Almost £500,000 is to be spent on green taxi charging points despite no 'green' black cabs being registered in the city.

It is hoped that the 28 charge points paid for with £390,000 government funding, plus the potential for £100,000 of city council cash, will encourage cabbies and taxi companies to buy greener vehicles.

Currently there are no electric hackney cabs in the city and the council doesn’t hold information about how many private hire electric vehicles there are locally, but a spokesman said it is not believed to be more than a few.

The ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) hackney carriages have only recently been released but charging points could also be used by electric private hire cars.

Black cab drivers have told Leicestershire Live that more needs to be done before they would be willing to shell out the £57,000 it costs to buy an ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) hackney carriage.

City centre cabbie Harry Singh said: “The only way I would consider buying a green taxi is if the council was to scrap the 11 year time limit.

“An electric vehicle should be good for life, if I spend more than £50,000 on a new cab I want to know it’s going to last me longer than 11 years. It could take that long to pay for itself.”

Leicestershire Live has asked the city council if there are plans to change the age limit when registering electric vehicles.


Mr Singh added: “Then there’s the charging, we wouldn’t want to stop working for a few hours to charge up.

"Do we leave the vehicles there? Do we stay with it? What if there are no free charging points?

“Taxi drivers don’t live in detached houses with big driveways, they live in flats or terraced houses or main roads where you can’t just leave your car plugged in.”

Another driver, John Rainer, added: “A better way of doing it would be for the council to buy a fleet of green vehicles and lease them to drivers, we could pay a rent on the cab.

“They can buy it, charge it and store it and we pay them to use it.”

The city council was one of 17 local authorities to successfully bid for funding from the £6 million pot to support new infrastructure for greener cleaner taxis.

The authority has said it will provide up to £100,000 of match funding for the scheme.

Councillor Adam Clarke, deputy city mayor for environment and public health, said: “Supporting a shift towards cleaner, greener transport is vital part of the city’s air quality action plan.

“We have already seen the positive impact that the clean air technology now being used by the city’s bus fleet is making.

“Now we want to see those benefits extended to the city’s hackney cabs. Ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is in place will be vital in helping local taxi operators make their fleets more environmentally-friendly.

“This new funding will help us accelerate the installation of new dedicated charging points for ultra-low emission taxis and is another important step towards achieving the city’s clean air ambitions.”

The council has already relaxed its policy that restricts the maximum age at which hackney cabs can operate to help encourage the take-up of electric taxis.

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