Most car aficionados are aware of the Moke, a
Mini-based vehicle originally built for the British army. It failed to serve its country,
however, due to the lack of ruggedness and go-anywhere ability of a military
vehicle, but has known success as UK’s own beach buggy of sorts.
In production for nearly three decades, the Moke was
eventually discontinued in 1993, only to be brought back more recently, in an
attempt to enter the electric car market. Yes, you read that right, the Moke is
now electric, and adds the ‘E’ prefix in its name.
Presented at the 2018 Paris Auto Show, the new
E-Moke maintains the cute little design of the original models, to which it
adds in-wheel mounted electric motors. Under full charge, the zero-emission
powertrain makes up to 720 Nm of torque, boostable to 800 Nm of torque for short periods of time.
Don’t look at the E-Moke as a possible rival
anything remotely fast, because it doesn’t have an impressive performance. Top
speed is only 120 km/h, and will take its users on a 150 km trip, before the 22 kWh battery needs charging. Speaking of which, filling the
battery with electricity takes between 5 and 7 hours, using a standard socket,
or 1.5 hours with fast charging.
The E-Moke isn’t coming with much in base form, but
it does promise street legal lights, rear buzzer, horn, glass windshield,
rearview mirrors, rear trunk, safety belts, radio/mp3 player and a 12v socket.
The only optional extra is a soft top, to protect that very basic interior from
rain or sunlight.
The car also has brake discs at the front and drums
at the rear, independent suspension on all four corners and is said to be able
to climb 20 percent grade hills.
