China's Geely plans to electrify London's cabs: report

LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile has been in talks over the possibility of converting London's black cabs into electric-powered cars, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The company, which co-owns black London taxi-maker Manganese Bronze, says it has held talks with UK government officials about the plan.

Chairman Li Shufu said he had discussed the idea of electric taxis with London mayor Boris Johnson at the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

"One of our ideas is to convert London taxis (to electric cars) ... we are doing research on this project," Li told the Financial Times in an interview.

Geely owns about 23 percent of Manganese Bronze and 51 percent of a Shanghai-based joint venture with the UK company that will produce the cars in China from December, the paper said.

(Reporting by Ben Deighton, editing by Tim Pearce)