The design of London's iconic black taxi has barely changed since the 1940s, but there is now something different under the hood in more than a tenth of the city's taxi fleet. More than XNUMX percent of taxi drivers have switched to battery-powered electric cars in an effort to combat climate change and air pollution. 

The battery-powered TX looks no different from the diesel cars, but it has no CO2 emissions at the exhaust. London EV Company (LEVC) TXs have been in production since January 2018. As of July 31, the company says 2500 have rolled off the assembly line. The TX taxis are almost completely silent and can drive for eight hours on a full charge. They also produce healthier air for the customers to inhale.

Peter Powell, a London taxi driver who has made the switch, said the diesel cars "have served the business quite well, but (are) very outdated, unreliable, inconvenient (and) extremely expensive to drive."

However, the new cars are not without problems. Powell says there aren't enough charging stations in the city. "It's very, very difficult, ” Powell said. “If you find a charger, you can't go on it. Taxis are waiting, and other vehicles are waiting. "

London mayor Sadiq Khan said in a tweet on Wednesday that the city has installed 178 new fast charging points for electric vehicles to date, and more are on the way.