It’s not all bad news for the British auto industry as the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) today started production of its new VN5 electric van at its factory in Ansty, Coventry. Joining the TX electric taxi on the assembly line, the VN5 marks the expansion of Geely’s LEVC brand beyond the taxi business and into continental Europe as well. The model is designed, engineered and manufactured at LEVC’s plant in Ansty, the UK’s only dedicated electric vehicle factory. It will be sold both in its home market but also in select countries across Europe.
As with the TX, which stands for “taxi”,
LEVC’s second product has a simple name, with VN chosen for “van” and 5
representing the volume of the cargo area – 5.5 cubic meters. The
VN5 looks just like the TX except the rear passenger compartment is replaced by
a big cargo area. It can accommodate two Euro sized pallets, one of which can
be loaded through the large side sliding door and the other one through the
60/40 split door at the rear, and has a gross payload is up to 830 kg. It also shares its lightweight aluminum construction and eCity
range-extended electric powertrain with the TX. It’s able to achieve a pure EV
range of over 98 km and a combined range of over 489 km.
By 2022, LEVC expects its new electric van
to make up around 70 per cent of production volume. The company is taking
orders in the UK, with the first vehicles to be delivered to customers before
the end of the year. A left-hand-drive variant will join production in March
2021 and LEVC says that more than 30 sales and service partners will be in
place in continental Europe by year’s end, adding to the 50 existing locations
in the UK.
