Site of London Taxi Company factory, Coventry, seen from Barker's Butts Lane

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 12 Jun 2021

Site of the former London Taxi Company factory on Holyhead Road, which was demolished in 2020. Houses are to be built on the site. The multi-storey car park in the distance belongs to the Sytner BMW dealership on Holyhead Road. The taxi factory has its roots in Carbodies, a company set up in 1919 to make coachwork - the bodywork of road vehicles - for local car manufacturers such as MG and Alvis. Its factory on Holyhead Road began production in 1928. It made military vehicles during the second world war and turned to taxi production in 1948. This gradually became the main business, with chassis production added in 1971. Manganese Bronze Holdings owned the company from 1973 to 2012, when it went into administration, and the following year it was sold to the Chinese company Geely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbodies Geely have built a new factory at Ansty Park, on the eastern outskirts of Coventry, and have renamed the London Taxi Company the London Electric Vehicle Company or LEVC, with a view to making vans as well as taxis. The new plant opened in 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Electric_Vehicle_Company https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-33755410

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