China’s Geely is planning to invest US$150m to make London Taxi Company a centre of excellence for taxi manufacturing, reported The Times.
Geely bought Manganese Bronze, which owned the cab company, out of administration last month. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely, pledged to invest in the British manufacturer and outlined plans to launch greener hybrid vehicles.
There were fears that Geely would shut down its Coventry plant and move production to China. But The Times reported Li as saying he didn’t think there would be any changes at the manufacturing facility in Coventry. The newspaper also said that London Taxi Company has signed deals worth up to US$225m to sell vehicles to Saudi Arabia and Western Australia.
Li has not ruled out listing Geely’s shares on the London stock market, the newspaper added.