Englon TXN from Geely. The new London Taxi? No Chance.

Englon TXN by Geely - supposedly on Tower Bridge

Geely is to market the Englon TXN, which is being touted as a replacement for the London Black Taxi. Extremely unlikely.

A couple of weeks ago we regaled you with the sorry story of the London Cab falling in to Chinese hands. It wasn’t the most shocking story considering how feeble the London Cab has become in comparison to newer offerings like the Mercedes Taxi – which is taking a big chunk of sales from the traditional cab – but still sad to see the iconic London Taxi end up this way.

London Taxis International already sourced most of the parts for the TX4 from China and just bolted them together here. There is also in place a joint venture (although it’s rather less ‘Joint’ now Geely own the majority 0f LTI) to produce black cabs in China for export to emerging markets in Asia.

But now comes what is being touted on the Interweb as ‘The New Black Cab’, the Englon TXN made by Geely in China. It’s being trumpeted as the replacement for the iconic black cab now Geely are in the driving seat. But can any of you who’ve ever been in a  black cab – or even in the Mercedes cab – see this being viable in London?

The interior of the Englon TXN

This is just a cheapo Chinese saloon with a black cab-like front bolted on. The interior seems to just have a bench seat in the back and I’m not sure there is room for a wheelchair. No, we think this is just a ‘Black Cab’ to slot in below the TX4 being built for Asian markets to offer a cheaper alternative. That would make much more sense.

Amusingly, the picture of the ‘Black Cab’ at the top is supposed to show the new Geely made Englon TXN crossing Tower Bridge. But they’ve obviously moved Tower Bridge since I crossed it last week because this Tower Bridge appears to be in Budapest!