An Englon TX4 taxi, seen on a cold day in the winter of 2012 in Beijing, in front of a large shopping mall near the center of town. The Englon TX4 was based on the London Taxi International (LTI) TX4.
In 2006, LTI’s owner, Manganese Bronze, and Geely agreed on a joint venture for production of the TX4 in Shanghai under Geely’s Englon brand. Over the years Geely would gradually increase its share in the iconic taxi maker, and eventually buy it outright. The company is now called the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC).
Production in Shanghai started in early 2008. The first 5,000 examples went straight to Beijing, where the TX4 served as the designated vehicle for transporting disabled spectators around town during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. After the games ended, the TX4 became a ‘normal’ taxi that everyone could catch. Sadly they were hard to find. 5,000 cars may seem a lot but in Beijing it was just a tiny drop in the ocean of zillions of Hyundai and Citroen taxi’s.
Englon stood for ‘England-London’, and Geely had great plans to make it into a cool ‘British’ brand similar to MG. Over the years, the company showed various concept cars of a modernized TX4 but none made it into production. In 2012, Englon launched a classy private version of the TX4 but sales were very low. In 2013 the Englon name was killed off, and with it the TX4. Finally, in 2015, the all-new TX5 debuted.
The Englon TX4 was powered by a 2.4 liter four-cylinder petrol engine, good for 130 hp and 202 Nm. The motor was mated to a six-speed manual, sending horses to the rear wheels. Price for the taxi version started at 208.000 yuan.
Inside the shopping mall I found a purple castle. Merry Christmas!
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