I've Spent £4 Million This Year — and I Can't Buy Another Cab

The same company builds the London black cab and Waymo's driverless robotaxi. One's being quietly wound down. The other's already on the road. So why can't you buy a new cab?

Outside Ascotts' head office in Dartford this week, a London taxi fleet owner — Tony — told LCDC chairman Grant Davis, on camera, what happened when he went in to order more cabs:

Tony: "I've spent £4 million quid this year so far on taxis, and I want to order some more cabs… I've just been told I can't order any. There's none now for sale, and I can't pre-order any at this present moment."

Grant: "So you can't grow your fleet because there's nothing for sale."

Tony: "I've got drivers asking me for cabs and I've got none available. A couple have actually told me they've got no alternative but to leave the trade — which I find very, very hurtful and hard to take."

Grant: "So self-employed drivers are being made unemployed."

Tony: "Yes… we could say that."

Grant: "What a state."

Read that again. The dealer wants to sell him cabs. Tony wants to buy — he's already put £4 million in this year. Drivers are queuing up. And still: none available, none to pre-order. This isn't a dealer problem. The cabs aren't coming from the manufacturer.

Which raises the only question that matters: why is LEVC not supplying new taxis to its own dealers?

What's on the record. LEVC — which builds the TX and TXe — has cut 180 jobs at its Coventry factory and, in Autocar's words, "throttled back production of the TX black cab in response to declining demand," citing "increasingly difficult market conditions." The trade press reports registrations have slowed so far the second-hand market has dried up too — "no one is selling right now."

But look at the contradiction. LEVC's stated reason is "declining demand." Yet here's a fleet owner with £4 million who can't buy, and drivers leaving the trade for want of a cab. That is not what "no demand" looks like. When willing buyers with cash can't get the product, something other than weak demand is throttling supply.

So follow the ownership. LEVC is owned by Geely — the Chinese giant that also owns Volvo and Polestar, part of Lotus, and close to 10% of Mercedes-Benz. And what is Geely pouring its money into? Driverless taxis. Geely's Zeekr brand builds Waymo's latest robotaxi — the one carrying paying passengers since May 2026. Geely's own arm already runs a robotaxi fleet in China and has a purpose-built driverless cab heading for mass production. In the UK, LEVC's newest push is the L380 people-mover — not the black cab.

There may be an innocent explanation — a model changeover, cost-cutting, a retooling. But line the facts up:

The maker has quietly throttled the black cab — to the point a £4m buyer is turned away.
The same parent company is loudly funding the driverless car built to do a taxi driver's job.

Nobody's going to connect them for you. But when the firm behind your cab is winding one product down and betting the business on the other, it tells you which way they think the road is heading.

And there's a clock. Waymo's driverless service is slated to launch in London in Q4 2026 — around 100 of its cars are already mapping the streets. Separately, a Centre for London report warned there could be no licensed black cabs left by 2045 on current trends, the fleet already down more than a third in a decade.

You can't buy the cab today. The people who make it are building its replacement. And the launch date isn't years away — it's quarters.

That's the picture, from the record. What each driver does with it is up to them.

With thanks to the London Cab Drivers Club (@The_LCDC) for the Ascotts interview.

Sources: LCDC interview outside Ascotts, Dartford; Autocar (LEVC 180 job cuts / throttled TX production); TAXI Newspaper / Taxi-Point (registrations, used-cab shortage); Bloomberg (Waymo robotaxi built by Geely's Zeekr, May 2026); Zhejiang Geely Holding (LEVC ownership); Centre for London (2045 projection).