Geely will invest another £50 million to build a R&D center of cutting-edge technology in Britain

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai Oct. 23)- Geely group has invested a great deal of resource to recover production of its existing factories and to develop new models since acquiring The London Taxi Company in 2013. In March this year, Geely announced to invest £250 million to build a high-tech, modern and new plant for The London Taxi Company for the purpose of producing next-generation London taxis with zero emission. This new plant is located in Anstey area of Coventry City, adjacent to the existing plant of The London Taxi Company. So far, it has been the largest green field investment made by Chinese enterprise in Britain, attracting high support from Britain’s government as well as from employees of The London Taxi Company. This also earned Geely attention from Premier David Cameron and from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.

In the morning of October 21, accompanied by Prince William and Princess Kate, President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan participated in the Sino-British exchange activity of creative industry held at the Palace of Lancaster. The president and his wife visited TX5 which is the new-generation London taxi with zero emission, which was an important part of the activity. TX5 was designed and produced in Britain by 200 experienced engineers and designers which were led by Peter Horbury, senior vice president of the global design center of Geely, and David Ancona, director of art center in Barcelona of Geely.

More importantly, TX5 is a kind of plug-in vehicle with zero emission, which is completely in compliance with the regulation of London’s government stipulating that all of new taxis in London should make zero emission since January 1, 2018. It is said that TX5 will be put in the market of Britain by the end of 2017 and will be available in the global market in 2018.

In addition, on October 21, Geely announced an additional investment of £ 50 million in Britain to purchase more facilities for research and development (R&D for short) and to establish a R&D center of cutting-edge technology. The new plant covers an area of 37,000 square meters, including 31,000 square meters occupied by the R & D center and other production facilities, nearly doubling that of the projected program. In the future, there will be nine different models developed, which include TX5 and alternative energy vehicles of lightweight Geely will launch lately.

The new plant Geely invested to build for The London Taxi Company turns out to be the first production base for manufacturing alternative energy vehicles it established in Britain, which will directly create more than 1,000 jobs for Britain and about 500 jobs for its supply chain. The construction of the new plant has begun since August in 2015 and will be completed in 2016 as expected. And it will start trial production as soon as the construction is completed.