- Meyers Manx introduced a new Neighborhood Electric vedhicle called the Resorter at The Quail on Friday.
- It’ll go 25 mph and costs $49,000.
- NEVs were a big deal in the 1990s when carmakers had to meet Zero Emissions Mandates. Now they are, or can be, fun little local transportation units.
Two big news items from the Meyers Manx people at this year’s The Quail: There is a Meyers Manx Neighborhood Electric Vehicle coming out called the Resorter, priced at $49,000 to start; and the price of the freeway-capable Meyers Manx 2.0 will be $79,000 and up. Back in 1964 you could get a Meyers Manx in kit form from Bruce Meyers himself for something like $500. It ain’t 1964 no more.
The Restorer
First, the Resorter. This is a four-seat, 25-mph version of the two-seat Meyers Manx 2.0, which is itself the all-electric successor to the original Meyers Manx that gave rise to the dune buggy craze of the 1960s. The Resorter is made for tooling around the neighborhood, if your neighborhood is Martha’s Vineyard, Lido Isle, or Del Boca Vista. Just don’t try to take it on the freeway.
The Meyers Manx Resorter is a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle. It falls in that class of vehicle designated by the DOT for vehicles that go no faster than 25 mph.
You may remember the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle; in the 1990s it was the way certain major auto manufacturers were going to circumvent (or meet) government standards for zero-emissions vehicles. Now it’s just a cute way to get around certain high-brow, low-speed neighborhoods where you’re not likely to get run over. Remember the GEM electric vehicles?
The Resorter NEV rides on an aluminum monocoque chassis powered by a twin-motor electric drivetrain and lithium ion batteries. The Meyers people claim the Resorter offers “class-leading torque, range, and acceleration” without saying what the torque, range, and acceleration are. But it should be fun, we hope.
“It will be at home from Malibu to Monaco,” said CEO Freeman Thomas, formerly designer for many major carmakers. “Born on the beach, it will have lots of torque, more than enough to carry four people up the steepest hills and lots of range to explore your favorite resort and not worry about range anxiety.”
“With the Resorter NEV, we are elevating the segment by introducing an unparalleled, well-engineered vehicle with the timeless Meyers Manx aesthetic,” said Phillip Sarofim, chairman of Meyers Manx.
All well and good, but $49,000? It’s not yet announced whether it will have the smaller 20-kWh from the two-seater Meyers Manx 2.0 or something even smaller. The Resorter was developed in parallel with the Manx 2.0.
The Meyers Manx 2.0
The other big piece of Meyers news is that $79,000 starting price for the Manx 2.0. That is for the Manx with the 20-kWh battery pack. No price for the 40-kWh battery pack was released.
Power from the pack goes to the Manx 2.0’s twin electric motors, one for each rear wheel. Combined, the motors make 202 hp, good for 0-60 MPH in a reported 4.5 seconds. Then, when you lift off the accelerator pedal, the Manx uses regenerative braking to help slow down.
When they revealed it last years, the Manx people have claimed that the 20-kWh battery is good for 150 miles of range and the 40-kWh battery good for 300 miles. If that sounds impossible, consider that the Manx 2.0 will only weigh 1500 pounds, or 1650 pounds for the 40-kWh version.
No word on the range or performance of the Resorter, but if you can afford one, and live in the right neighborhood, range may not matter.
Looking forward to driving either one of these.
Would you pay $49,000 for a car that only goes 25 mph? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since.
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