Mercedes Sells More London Taxis Than The London Taxi Company

Go to London and you're bound to see those iconic black taxis. But who makes them?

If you answered The London Taxi Company, you're both right and wrong. The manufacturer owned by Geely (and recently rechristened as the London Electric Vehicle Company) makes a lot of them... but Mercedes makes more.

According to the latest figures published by Transport for London (and furnished by Mercedes), the Mercedes-Benz Vito accounted for 489 of the new taxis registered in the city between January and August 2017, compared to 399 of LTC's TX4. That gives Mercedes and the Vito a 55.1% market share.

“We know that for both cabbies and their customers, Vito Taxi provides the most comfortable, efficient journey,” said Mercedes-Benz Vans UK managing director Steve Bridge, “and the results for 2017 so far speak for themselves – we are outselling the competition.”

For those unfamiliar, the Vito is Benz's smaller counterpart to the ubiquitous Sprinter. It's also sold as the V-Class or Viano in private passenger configuration, or as the Metris in North America.