London Electric Vehicle Company builds protype range extender van

The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) has begun building protypes for its new electric range extender van at the company’s factory in Coventry.

The LEVC van prototypes are being built on the same line as the company’s world famous TX taxis and will be subjected to development and homologation programme that includes hot and cold climate testing, durability and crash testing.

Built using the same aluminium body as the TX electric taxi, the LEVC van also shares the taxi’s class-leading turning circle of just 10.1m – a requirement of London black cabs. LEVC also claims that the electric van will offer class leading total cost of ownership as well as being resistant to rust thanks to its aluminium architecture.

Joerg Hofmann, CEO of LEVC, said: “Prototype stage is an important milestone in our new electric van’s development process as we stay on track towards full production in Q4. This new van satisfies the growing demand zero-emissions vehicles in the 1-tonne segment, currently dominated by diesel products, and combines this with extended mileage capability to totally eliminate any range-anxiety. It’s an intelligent green mobility solution for any commercial vehicle operator.”

The van is said to be capable of an 80 mile electric only range with the range extender, based on the TX e-City cab, allowing up to 370 miles of driving.