Coventry-based ADV Manufacturing has been announced as the British firm that will be responsible for the engineering, development and final assembly of Nissan’s new Taxi for London, due to hit the streets of the capital late this year.

ADV will build a production facility for the vehicle next to its existing premises, with a view to delivering the first petrol-engined versions in December 2014.

An all-electric variant of the black cab, whose final design was unveiled in London earlier this year, will begin in 2015.

Designed in London, for London at Nissan Design Europe (NDE) in Paddington, the London taxi represents a new vision for the traditional black cab and has been designed to conform to strict Transport for London regulations for Hackney Carriages.

The base vehicle is sourced from Nissan’s Barcelona factory and shipped to ADV’s Coventry plant for final taxi assembly. Its transformation includes new bodywork, taxi interior refit and revised suspension and steering.

Brendan O’Toole, CEO of ADV Manufacturing, said: “This is great news for ADV and indeed for the city of Coventry. The company is already taking on more engineers, technicians and other specialist staff to reinforce our product development group. We will be expanding and training our production team to build taxis from the early summer.

“With Coventry University turning out world class engineers and the city itself being steeped in a rich automotive manufacturing history, we couldn’t be located in a better place to launch such an exciting and prestigious project as the New Taxi for London. We anticipate the Nissan taxi will become the new market standard and thereby underpin sustainable jobs at ADV for many years”.

ADV was founded in 2010 and has delivered major automotive engineering and manufacturing projects at the highest levels. The firm currently supplies body and trim assemblies to many of the world’s leading automotive brands including Bentley, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce and JLR.

Mr O’Toole added: “Our heritage in the development and manufacture of complete specialist vehicles – coachbuilding you could say - runs much deeper. Many iconic vehicles owe their place in history to the technical expertise and project leadership skills within our current team.

“I’m delighted to say that Nissan recognised the value in harnessing this capability and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with them.”

Andy Palmer, chief planning officer and executive vice president of the Nissan Motor Corporation said: “Our new Taxi for London is part of a wider, international taxi programme that forms a key part of Nissan’s global strategy, so we are naturally being very careful in selecting our partners. ADV has demonstrated that it has the proficiency and capability to deliver what we believe will become a new icon for London.

“We are pleased to be reinforcing once again our commitment to the British automotive industry and the fact that our black cabs will be rolling off the production line in Coventry, with its long history in the taxi business, is an added bonus.”