London black cab maker LEVC launches a new 8-seat MPV that takes inspiration from Airbus’ A380 superjumbo.
The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) recently expanded from its usual black cab manufacturing and has since previewed an 8-seater MPV. And as its model name of L380 suggests, this luxury-focused minivan has apparently taken inspiration for its design from the Airbus A380 superjumbo.
An admittedly ingenious move to associate its minivan with what many the world’s most comfortable passenger plane to fly on from the get-go, this synergy with the largest airliner in the world continues on with the L380’s gargantuan size. That is as according to LEVC’s application for a sales license in China, this minivan comes in at a rather massive 5,316 mm long, 1,998 mm wide and 1,940 mm tall with a kerb weight of 2,805 kg.
It further does at least look like LEVC has also attempted to transfer some of the Airbus’ design cues too, not least from the rather bulbous prow of this minivan. The front of the L380 also nets a full-width light bar with bumper-mounted headlights that is situated beneath a massive wraparound windshield, while its boxy rump is bookended by taillights with futuristic LED graphics that appear to have drawn inspiration from stretching chewing gum.
Now moving on inside, LEVC has yet to officially reveal how the interior of this L380 will look like. Though it has stated that the standard 8-seater configuration are arranged across four rows of two, with the rearmost able to be folded and stowed while the third row is able to slide back and forth to boost leg room.
LEVC has thus far also not provided any concrete technical specs regarding this upcoming minivan, with all that is confirmed being for the fully-electric L380 to ride on its newly-revealed Space Optimised Architecture (SOA). A platform that is incidentally derived from (its parent company) Geely’s SEA, it should therefore not come as much of a surprise too for early reports to suggest this minivan to be offered with the same 200 kW front-mounted motor setup as the technically related Volvo EM90 and a choice of either a 73 kWh or 120 kWh battery packs for a maximum range of 695 km.
Set to be built alongside the TX London black cab in Zhejiang, China, the L380 is apparently to be the first in a range of new ‘mobility solutions’ the automaker plans to launch in the coming years. Though perhaps more pertinently to Malaysians, LEVC has stated that this minivan is currently earmarked for a global market introduction.
So given then that that both LEVC and Proton are after all under the same Geely corporate umbrella, there might be a(n admittedly very very slim) chance yet for what is currently presented here to be the new Exora. And if that ever does happen, would this superjumbo-inspired supermassive MPV be able to take on the local Toyota titans over here?
