The days of the dirty diesel taxi in cities across Europe may be long gone but few locations have gone quite as far as the Scottish capital Edinburgh in its quest for a zero emission taxi fleet.

All electric vehicles built by local business, the Union Motor Company, are now making a big impact cutting both emissions and driver running costs.

Called TX eCitys, these taxi look pretty much like many other on the road but are in fact state of the art range-extended electric models. They are only every driven by a powerful electric motor, however, do feature a small petrol engine to top-up the battery. The technology gives the taxi 600 km daily range.

What will perhaps be the most attractive factor to drivers is the estimated £100 weekly saving in fuel. Add to this service intervals extended from 12,000 miles to 25,000 miles and over-all cost saving are said to be £458 per month.