London's black cabs bet their future on technology over a century old

London

THE iconic black cabs plying the streets of London are banking their future on a 19th century technology: the electric motor.

To help solve the UK capital's smog problems, London Taxi Co is turning to methods of propulsion used by forerunners at the London Electrical Cab Co, which from 1897 ran a fleet of 80 battery-powered cars designed by Walter Bersey. That first electric-motor taxi trial fizzled out in 1899 after the costly vehicles - which drove only slightly faster than a horse - were scrapped for internal-combustion engines powered by petrol.