After Nissan’s dreadful and frankly depressing attempt at making a modern-day London Taxi, the Brits decided to have a go themselves. So Frazer-Nash teamed up with Ecotive, and came up with this Metrocab taxi you see here. It doesn’t look very brilliant if we’re honest, but still, miles better than that Nissan thing.
Being a home-grown product of the modern Britain, the Metrocab Taxi is Range Extended Electric (REE) vehicle that blends retro styling cues of the original London Hackney Cab with features of a modern car. So while it has a classic body, it also features a panoramic glass roof, driver multi-function touch screen display, TV screens for passengers, USB charging sockets, hands-free phone capability, air suspension, air con, ABS, even mood lighting!
Crucially, the London Metrocab Taxi is also very green. As mentioned it is an electric vehicle with a small petrol engine provided as a range-extender. It is a 1.0 liter unit that emits no more than 50 g/km CO2 but makes enough juice for the on-board electric motor to cover a distance of 350 miles (560km) before it needs topping up.
The Metrocab Taxi is capable of carrying six passengers (plus optional seventh passenger seat in the front), and it has a turning circle of 7.62m; a very important factor for a London Taxi. The car has been in development for over 10 years, over which time it’s clocked over a million engineering test kilometres. So Frazer-Nash is confident it is going to be a success.
The Metro Cab taxi is currently on a trial run to get commissioned for full-time duty.
