Morgan has been looking into electric drives for several years now. Back in 2008, it had shown the prototype of a fuel cell car, the LIFEcar. Sadly, it never went beyond the prototype stage. The British company should go further this time as the technology will be simpler: one electric motor on a pack of lithium-ion cells.

The motor will come from another well-known British specialist, Zytek, which is a long time partner of the Daimler group (they developed the electric smart car together), and which will provide a 70-kW, 221-lb/ft of torque motor for Morgan. The car will be built on the aluminium chassis of the Aero Supersport, we shall see them driving early next year. One car should also be at the Geneva show in March.

An interesting feature is that the engineers have chosen to keep the manual 5-speed transmission of the Morgan. There are many good reasons for this, better efficiency and better performance, but one problem. It might not be smooth or fast enough for an electric motor. This is where Zytek’s expertise will be most valuable to make things work.