Chinese carmaker Geely, owner of the London Taxi Company, opened Wednesday a £300-million UK factory making only electrical versions of the iconic London black cab for use worldwide.
The site in Coventry, central England, "has the capacity to build more than 20,000 vehicles per year... the best ultra-low emission commercial vehicles in the world", LTC said in a statement.
Geely bought LTC four years ago after the British company found itself in serious financial difficulty. Geely owns Volvo and said it will use the Swedish carmaker's technologies and components in its new taxis.
"Today marks the rebirth of the London Taxi Company," said LTC chief executive Chris Gubbey after the creation of more than 1,000 new jobs linked to the plant's opening.
LTC chairman Carl-Peter Forster added that the plant is "the first brand new automotive manufacturing facility in Britain for over a decade, the first dedicated electric vehicle factory in the UK and the first major Chinese investment in UK automotive".
Indians own Jaguar Land Rover and Chinese own London Taxi. Both are driving toward electric vehicle production.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2017, @07:09PM (6 children)
I generally like the idea of global freedom, anyone can go anywhere and participate. However, a lot of things are disturbing about multinationals, specifically local goods and services are no longer local. Beyond just the concerns of local citizens going unanswered I find the insanely huge multinational entities disturbing. Wealth needs to be more evenly distributed, as it stands we now have multinational corporations that rival the force of many smaller countries, basically they become their own weird nation. For those that complain about government, these institutions are basically doubling up the amount of government and hiding it behind a different name. The worst part is corporations aren't there to serve people, they are there to serve "profit".
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday March 23 2017, @07:27PM (1 child)
What I find ironic is that 20 years ago, the "left" was opposing globilization in the form of Free trade agreements.
Now, the "right" is all upset that the manufacturing jobs went overseas. (as if that was not predictable)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2017, @11:28PM
Thank goodness for the centrists who made it all happen, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2017, @07:50PM (1 child)
The tax implications are legendary. Multinationals are mostly not taxable.
The legal implications are loads of fun. Microsoft got told to reveal user data held in Ireland. This question wouldn't exist without the multinational problem.
Trade secrets are leaking. China got fighter jet designs from stupid Russians, then passenger jet reliability and factory designs from stupid American GE. Put that together, and you get reliable fighter jet engines.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @04:25AM
> ... and you get reliable fighter jet engines.
Doesn't matter, fighter jets are for fighter jocks (and the ex-fighter jocks that command the fighter squadrons). Missiles (nearly) always can out turn and maneuver human piloted aircraft, so the missiles win.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2017, @11:25PM
These electric taxis can be powered by Hinkley Point Unit C. Good for the UK, good for China, and good for France (for the other nuclear powers, not so much perhaps).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Friday March 24 2017, @05:23AM
Gee, you sound almost like the bunch of local business folk around the east coast of North America 245 years ago. They were protesting the multinational corporation East India Company.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @01:31AM (3 children)
No product "Mad in China" enters my house. Especially foodstuff.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday March 24 2017, @04:23AM (2 children)
So, have you checked *every* component of every device you own? Or do you leave some things (lightbulbs, leds, printers, toasters...) outside, so you don't break your rule?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @05:05AM
Yep.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday March 24 2017, @10:34AM
He said "Mad in China", you see. This implies taking things into the house and putting them into the madness detecting device (known also as a microwave elsewhere). If the product exhibits mad behavior, it is brought back for replacement. If it passes the test, well, he sniffs it out to see whether it is from China.