The Morgan Motor Company, known for its vintage-looking wooden roadsters and 3-wheelers seeming like something straight out the First World War, has unveiled its all-electric EV3. The ultimate representation of the last century of motoring is finally here.
You read that right. The company that makes cars that look like early-20th Century airplanes out of wood frames and sheet metal by hand in a small British factory have are putting the finishing touches on a fully-electric 3-wheeler. Finally, a method of transportation for those who want to role-play and save the planet is here—well, one that doesn’t buck you off or stop to shit every mile. And, well, just look at it! It’s amazing.
Carfection (and RoadShow) got a video crew in for an early peek at Morgan’s new electric 3-wheeler, dubbed the EV3, and it promises all the charm, power, and you-must-wear-goggles windy appeal of the gasoline-powered Morgan 3-Wheeler.
Compared to the traditional 3-wheeler, the EV3 comes with a slightly stretched nosed while obviously lacking a giant gasoline motor protruding from it, instead replaced with a row of gorgeous brass cooling strips which simultaneous cool the battery system while also looking pretty damn cool itself.
Morgan looked to futuristic designs like 1950’s pop culture robots. Hey, the ‘50s are futuristic for a company that makes cars designed in the ‘30s. Combine that with the concept of asymmetry, like the single off-center headlight, and aerodynamic necessity closing off the passenger-side of the cockpit, and you get something like nothing else on the road.
Possibly the coolest aspect of the new EV3 is that it manages to look vintage while being designed to accommodate to the modern all-electric drivetrain. It looks fantastic!
Of course the driving dynamics are completely different, with the EV3 losing the rumbling sound of the combustion engine and delivering a completely new driver experience.
The combustion 3-wheeler has a 2.0 liter v-twin engine with around 115 hp with a top speed just over 100 mph. As pointed out by Alex Goy, the sensation of speed is what sells the 3-wheeler, and Morgan promises the new EV3 will match the performance of its combustion counterpart.
Morgan plans to sell their space-age vintage aero-inspired open-top fully electric 3-wheeler by the end of the year at around the same price as the combustion alternative, so somewhere north of $40,000.
As silly as it seems, that price is so worth it.
Contact the author at justin@jalopnik.com or @WestbrookTweets.
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