The forever classic black box-London taxi

As the most common means of transportation, taxis can be seen everywhere on the road, and their classic shapes have left a profound impact on the minds of every generation. To say the most classic taxi model in the world, it must be an English taxi.

In fact, as early as around the beginning of the17th century, when the rich people were not using the carriage, they rented it to the less wealthy gentry to make up for the expenses of maintaining it. Later, hotel owners and businessmen bought old carriages replaced by rich people and parked them near the hotel for full-time rental, which was often used by bar owners to send drunken guests home.

With the development of the next two industrial revolutions, the new product of automobile has begun to enter people's sight, and London taxis have also begun to move from the carriage era to the automobile era. 1897, the first car taxi in London was officially born, by Walter? c？ Bertie designed and named it. It is worth mentioning that this car is an electric car, but because of its high cost and poor reliability, it caused several accidents and one person died. The public lost confidence in electric taxis, which led to the withdrawal of 1900 electric taxis from the market.

Until 1903, the first taxi powered by gasoline appeared in London, which was made by Rummel. Later, Renault, vauxhall and UNIC automobile brands began to meet the lease conditions. However, due to the financial problem of introducing Ford B-car plan at that time, there were less than 100 gasoline-powered taxis in London at the end of 2006. By 1929, the newly established Austin company relies on low? The advantages of cheap, reliable and easy maintenance of loaders dominated the taxi market at that time, and also became the largest selling model in the automobile market at that time.

With the end of World War II, the taxi market began to pick up. 1948, Austin introduced FX3, which laid the history of British taxis. During its 65,438+00-year product cycle, FX3 has received about 7,000 market orders, and the classic black box shape of British taxis has been inherited since then.

1958, Austin introduced FX4, which continued the dominance of FX3 in the taxi market. As one of the longest-lived models in Britain, FX4 has been continuously modified and updated for 39 years. Until 1973, British manganese copper company acquired Austin, 1982, and took over the intellectual property rights of FX4 car body from British Leland Group. Manganese Copper Company launched LTI Waterway Series, and its FX4 was renamed Waterway. However, because LTI failed, TX 1 introduced by Manganese Copper Company in 1997 successfully replaced FX4. It is worth mentioning that TX 1 has added humanized functions such as wheelchair lifting function and child safety seat.

In 2002, Manganese Copper introduced a new model TX2, with little change in appearance. Mainly replaced by Ford 2.4L diesel engine which meets Euro III emission standards. In 2006, TX4 launched by Manganese Copper was approved as the latest model of London-licensed taxi, which is the most familiar black? Taxi, please

In 2006, Geely cooperated with LEVC's predecessor, London Taxi Company, and its parent company, Manganese Copper Holding Company, and established a taxi manufacturing joint venture company headquartered in China. However, LTI has been in financial trouble since 2007, so in 2009, Geely acquired part of the shares of Manganese Copper Holding Company. So in 2008, Geely officially rolled off the production line of TX4 in China, and there were about 65,438+0,000 TX4 vehicles in China, most of which were used as service vehicles during the Beijing Olympic Games, Guangzhou Asian Games and Shanghai World Expo.

In 20 12, Manganese Copper Holdings entered bankruptcy management due to lack of funds, so it was acquired by China Geely in 20 13, and the classic TX4 was sold in China as a Geely British model.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.