Walter Bersey was an electrical engineer who had already designed electric buses, a van and private cars when he developed an electric cab for London. Promoted by Harry Lawson, the London Electrical Cab Company was floated two days after the famous 1896 Emancipation Run to Brighton. The first cabs were built by Lawson’s Great Horseless Carriage Company, with bodies by the coachbuilder Mulliner styled like a horse-drawn brougham, and around 50 improved cabs followed in 1898 from the Gloucester Railway Waggon Company.
Each cab weighed two tons, much of it a bank of 40 batteries slung under the chassis, and carried two passengers at up to 12 mph, with a range of about 30 miles. Instead of recharging, cabs returned to the company’s depot in Lambeth, where hydraulic lifts swapped the whole battery tray in two or three minutes. Twelve cabs entered service on 19 August 1897, the first self-propelled taxis in London, and the fleet peaked at about 75. Their black and yellow livery and the sound of their motors earned them the nickname “hummingbirds”, and even the Prince of Wales rode in one.
The weight wore out tyres quickly, which shook the delicate battery plates, and replacements were expensive. The company lost £6,200 in its first year, breakdowns became common, and in August 1899 the cabs were withdrawn and the company closed. Fully electric black cabs did not return to London until 2019.
