Back when it first arrived at the Geneva Motor Show in 2016, the Morgan EV3 electric three-wheeler looked good with its streamlined carbon fiber body, shiny brass battery cooling fins, and offset headlight. But after the production date of late 2016 became late 2018, now we have news via Autocar that the EV3 is being shelved. Sad.
Speaking with Morgan’s managing director Steve Morris, the news site learned that the EV3 has been shelved because the company’s powertrain supplier, Frazer-Nash, is apparently “no longer able to fulfill the project within the terms of the contract.” Plus, according to Morris, Morgan still has more to learn about EVs before launching an electric three-wheeler, telling Autocar:
“We had expected Frazer-Nash to deliver a turn-key powertrain for the EV3, but have since realised we need more EV know-how inside our Malvern headquarters. We are in the process of bolstering our EV team by bringing additional specialist resource in-house.”
The car website also spoke with Noamaan Siddiqui, managing director of powertrain-supplier Frazer-Nash, writing:
Noamaan Siddiqui said the deal had failed “for a number of contractual reasons”, while declaring that prototypes his company had built were “very promising”.
The specs for the car shown at the Geneva Motor Show back in 2016 included a 62 horsepower motor that received current from a 20 kWh lithium-ion battery, and that offered an overall range of 150 miles.
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But in late 2017, when Morgan began its partnership with Frazer-Nash (which is known for its involvement with London’s all-electric Metrocab taxi), some of those specs changed. The result was an “all-new, more robust architecture” with a stiffer chassis, as well as more motor torque. Battery capacity went up a single kilowatt-hour to 21 kWh, and motor power dropped about six ponies to 56 HP. Range also dropped 30 miles to 120 miles.
According to Autocar’s story, Morris says the EV3 isn’t dead, but “will have to be re-evaluated.”
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As long as it looks somewhat like the machine above after this “reevaluation,” and makes it to production before the end of this millennium, I’ll be happy.
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