Manganese Bronze, one of the main manufacturers of London black cabs, has signed an agreement with electric vehicle maker Tanfield to make battery powered taxis that should hit the streets by mid 2009.

Hello ????

As far as the Electric taxis are concerned, I recently spoke to a representative of Manganeze Bronze who told me that "this project is ongoing and I believe we are still trying to obtain funding".
"thanks to kimoldfield."

Just for you Steff ;o)


RNS Number : 3923U
Tanfield Group PLC
24 June 2009



Tanfield Group plc ('Tanfield' or the 'Company')

24 June 2009


Electric Passenger Vehicle Development & Trial

Tanfield is pleased to announce that it is part of a successful consortium bid to develop electric passenger vehicles.

The Company will be eligible to receive 1.6m in Government funding towards a total project cost of 3.2m to develop and trial a total of 16 vehicles as part of the Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Programme - a scheme funded and administered by the Government's Technology Strategy Board.

Building on its Ford relationship, Tanfield will develop five people carriers, based on the Ford Connect Tourneo platform, (as shown in conceptual form on Ford's stand at the 2009 Geneva motor show), and one executive minibus, based on the already established Ford Transit chassis. In addition Tanfield will deliver 10 electric taxis, through its collaboration with Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC.

Darren Kell, CEO of Tanfield, said: 'This funding will support our plans to transfer leading edge electric vehicle technology from our vans and trucks into passenger vehicles.

'This project opens up a raft of exciting possibilities for us. Tanfield is already acknowledged as the leader in electric vehicles that move goods; this enables us to address the market for electric vehicles that move people.'

Manganese Bronze runs into deeper losses


Manganese Bronze, maker of the classic London taxi, warned of widening losses as it began consultations with workers over further job cuts.

The Coventry-based company, which extended traditional summer shutdowns in response to falling demand, saw sales continue to stall and predicted that full-year losses would be steeper than previously forecast.

Sales in July and August edged up slightly from 159 to 172 units but total sales in the eight months to August fell 9 per cent from 1,328 to 1,207.

John Russell, chief executive, said the expected run-rate of sales suggested the company would not achieve its break-even target of selling 2,000 vehicles a year.

Manganese Bronze moved from a profit of 1.5m to a loss of 636,000 at the interim stage, but the company reported a pre-tax loss of 13m for 2008 after it absorbed 8m of exceptional charges resulting from property and stock writedowns and a product recall. It raised 10m through a share placing in June to strengthen its balance sheet.

An average of broker forecasts had pointed to a full-year loss of 2.5m in 2009.

The company, which has begun production of a cheaper version of its TX4 model in Shanghai in a joint venture with Chinese carmaker Geely, hopes to reduce UK production costs through sourcing cheaper components in the country.

However, it said on Wednesday that the benefits of securing lower-cost Chinese parts had not yet been sufficient to reduce the breakeven level of production, as price increases from UK suppliers and sales discounting has more than offset this benefit.

Manganese Bronze, which has cut headcount by 20 per cent from 470 to 390 since last year after a slowdown in sales, also imposed a 10 per cent salary cut on employees in February and cut the wage bill of hourly paid staff by adding 28 further lay-off days to the traditional summer shutdown.

A good example of fast tracking on the ski slope.

Profit warning again...


Shares in London black cabs maker Manganese Bronze crashed today as it warned profits would miss City forecasts because it has to repair so many leaky radiators on its newest TX4 model.

Manganese shares, which hit a peak of 238p last year, slumped 20 per cent, falling 21p to 86p.

The firm said it had spent more on warranty repairs in 2008 than it expected dealing with the leaky radiators. The previous year it was hit by having to recall TX4s after several of them burst into flames.

Manganese's British sales have also been affected by the recession, down from well over 2,000 in 2007 and 1,951 in 2008 to 1,724 last year. It is also almost 12 months since Manganese faced its first competitor on London's streets in the shape of the Mercedes Vito.

Its distributor Eco City Vehicles announced its 500th sale in December and claims to have captured 30 per cent of the new taxis market. Manganese also said that a consultation process which is expected to see major redundancies at its Coventry plant is nearing its completion.

It expects to sell 1,000 black cabs from its Shanghai factory this year.

The firm told investors: The impact of the higher-than-expected warranty spend and lower-than-expected sales means that the outcome for the year is now expected to be below current market expectations.

Manganese said it discovered the warranty overspend as it was preparing its results for the 12 months to the end of December.

Once this was everones darling and now look at it.

I will have a look at 50p.

Hmm struggling aren't they?

Taxi!

It will be the Shanghai cabs soon...



China set to take control of London black cabs.


China's largest independent carmaker is poised to take control of Manganese Bronze, maker of London's black taxi, as another slice of Britain's car making heritage looks set to fall into the arms of a foreign owner.

Sluggish sales of the world's most recognised taxi have prompted Manganese Bronze to consider offering more shares to the Geely Group, the Chinese company which already owns a 23 per cent stake.

The company, which reported its results for the year ending December 31, said that a placing to Geely to fund vehicle assembly, development and distribution would be priced at 70p per share and would give the group a controlling stake in Manganese.

The placing has been agreed with two of the company's biggest shareholders but the company is adamant that ceding control to Geely will not mean the end of manufacturing at the company's works in Coventry.

Shares in Manganese Bronze have traded in the range of 80 to 90p in recent weeks, but hit a high of 238p last summer.

An equity placing to Geely will fully cement our relationship, enhance the groups capital base and see the potential for the group to expand into the assembly and distribution of Geely vehicles, John Russell, the Manganese chief executive, said.

Manganese is already a 48 per cent shareholder in a joint venture with Geely in China called Shanghai LTI, which makes cabs for the international market.

Geely has shown an interest in Western carmakers, having agreed in December to buy Volvo from Ford.

The placing is dependent upon agreements being finalised with Geely for the distribution of taxis in Europe and the sale of a Geely saloon car in the UK.

Manganese said that it had sold only 1,724 London taxis in the key UK market last year, down from 1,951 in 2008.

It said that it was moving body panels and chassis production from Coventry to Shanghai this year, after its UK coating supplier announced plans to shut down in August.

The move would further the companys ties with China and lead to the loss of 60 jobs, leaving Manganese with 300 employees - down from a pre-recession peak of about 500.

Seven weeks after issuing a profits warning which sent its shares down 20 per cent, the taxi maker said that the recession had particularly affected its core London market. Shares in the company fell 0.5p to 85p in early trading today.

Total revenue for 2009 was 73.1 million, down from 77.2 million in 2008. The company posted pre-tax losses of 7.3 million, an improvement on the previous years loss of 14.2 million, although that included a 4 million impairment charge relating to the recall of taxis with radiator problems. The forecast was for a pre-tax loss of 6.8 million.

2009 was a difficult year for our UK taxi operation with significant discount and sales incentivescombined with price pressure from fragile UK suppliers, Mr Russell, the chief executive, said.

Current trading continues to be adversely impacted by the wider economic environment.

Increased warranties, which rose after Manganese recalled a number of taxis, had dented operating profits, the company said. The lack of availability of finance was a major issue for the company, restricting international sales to 212 vehicles. Manganese now had higher levels of inventory than would be ideal.

No dividend will be paid for 2009 and will not be paid until the company returns to profitability, it said.

The company confirmed that it planned to transfer its listing to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to meeting UK Listing Authority requirements over the control of assets.

77p now...keep shorting.

65p now...great

47p as expected...20p on the way.

45p for me and I will BUY

This taxi is going downhill... no brakes included!

looks like a one way trip.,.

Frank Zhao and Lawrence Ang, non-executive directors of the Company, have resigned with immediate effect.

BAYLIS - 14 Jun 2010 18:26 - 63 of 66
45p for me and I will BUY


And did you? They closed at 45p two days ago. And at 41.25p yesterday.

Hey Juzz - How you keeping? Not seen you around for a while.