Published on November 5th, 2014 | by Christopher DeMorro
1Electric Morgan Three-Wheeler Under Consideration
When the Morgan Three-Wheeler returned to the market after nearly a 60 year hiatus, the owners expected to sell 400 or 500 of the niche vehicles. But they’ve since sold triple that number in a report by The Telegraph, and orders continue to pour in as word gets around; it’s gotten to the point where an electric version is even under consideration.
Morgan is a niche automaker in every sense of the word, able to produce at most about 1,000 vehicles per year. About half that production is the three-wheeler, which is much more capacity than Morgan had expected to need, with the rest of its small lineup splitting the other half. Morgan already offers an electric version of the Plus 8 called the Plus E, but for their 100th anniversary they decided to harken back to a simpler time, when three-wheelers were a much more common sight on highways and byways.
With a starting price of around $40,000, the Three-Wheeler is definitely a niche luxury vehicle, and converting it into an electric vehicle would only add costs compared to the motorcycle drivetrain that currently powers it. Yet there’s a growing appeal among the wealthy for electric vehicles, and Morgan is probably just small enough to really sell the idea of instant torque and an even lower center of gravity for the Three-Wheeler. While it would have a much more limited range, it’s not like many people are taking the Morgan for extended drives to begin with.
Morgan isn’t the only three-wheeled vehicle company to see a surge in interest though; Elio Motors has taken thousands of reservations for its 84 MPG trike, showing that people around the world are broadening their horizons when it comes to persona transportation.
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One Response to Electric Morgan Three-Wheeler Under Consideration
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The Morgan is, has been, and will always be an insignificant marque, regardless of whether they make the mistake of trying to electrify a limited production vehicle.
There is simply no good reason for doing so. The Elio, however, is a whole different matter : a very practical car that has just exactly what is needed to produce a practical electric vehicle at this point in time : a very small energy requirement, around 25% of the mastodon Tesla Model S, which is exactly the wrong strategy, regardless of how well Tesla can bamboozzle its rich customers into believing that they are “making a difference.” Analysis of the batteries required for a 250 mile driving range would show that an electric Elio would likely need only about 28kWhr
capacity and would weigh roughly the same 1200 pounds. Cost of electricity would be roughly 1 cent per mile and car priced at roughly $11,000 to $14,000. An electric Elio would easily be the first practical electric and Paul Elio has already expressed a desire to build one in the near future. Elio is building cars to make a difference and help the lower classes.