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IS the familiar London black cab which can “turn on a sixpence” at risk of disappearing from the capital's streets?
Greener and roomier with space for six passengers, the newly licensed Mercedes Vito — with 400 sales over the past year — has already captured 25% of the new London black cab market.
Private forecasts from the taxi rank suggest that the £35,000 air-conditioned Mercedes could be outselling the Manganese Bronze's TX4 — the traditional black cab model — within a year.
Eco City, the AIM-listed company which helped out on the rear-wheel steering development of the Mercedes taxi says that its subsidiary KPM-UK — which sells both the Mercedes taxi and the TX4 — is reporting that the Vito is outselling the TX4 at a rate of four to one on its forecourt.
Peter DaCosta, the former cabbie who is Eco City's chief executive said: “The new Mercedes-Benz taxi, is rapidly gaining market share and the cabbies love it.
“For the cabbie the Mercedes is giving him 27 or 28 miles per gallon compared with 20 mpg on their old model if they're are lucky. That's £7 or £8 a day, £40 or £50 a week. That matters.
“And corporate London is going out of its way to order the Mercedes taxi. Why wouldn't they when the alternative could be a 15-year-old cab without air-conditioning and in which the passengers are not comfortable?”
Eco City today reported it had cut its half-year losses by 80% to £131,000 on sales up 20% at £12 million.
