About 6,000 London cabs will be on the streets of cities in Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa after Manganese Bronze, the maker of the traditional taxi, doubled its estimate for the number of vehicles it would have sold to foreign markets by 2011.

The Coventry manufacturer said sales in its London market, which accounts for about 65 per cent of total sales, had been affected by the economic downturn with cabbies growing more cautious about investing in new vehicles.