Limited Edition Manx Meyer 2.0 EV Beach Buggy Launch
The legend that is the Manx Meyer beach buggy is not going to be consigned to nostalgic sixties surfing history; the Manx Meyer 2.0 EV is on its way to pave the way forward into the realm of the greener vehicle for the future.
Good stuff. We’ve known about the rumours for some time now, but the Manx Meyer 2.0 EV finally debuted at the recent 2023 Monterey Car Week – but it comes with a hefty price tag…
Launch Edition
Initially, Manx will produce a limited ‘Launch Edition’ beach buggy, possibly to test the water to some extent, with a vague hope that a more reasonably priced version will materialise later on in the future.
We can’t avoid it any longer, so here’s the minimum cost for owning a Manx Meyer electric dune buggy – $74,000 (around £58-59,000).
Cost aside, this is, surprisingly, the first brand new Meyers beach buggy to materialise in more than 50 years. It’s certainly some way on from the early homemade glass fibre beach buggy that was built onto the remains of a VW Beetle using an air-cooled (quite literally, with it being open to the breeze) flat-4 veedub engine.
Aside from the cost and the all-electric sealed powertrain, Manx has fortunately not updated the classic Bruce Meyers look and style too much.
In fact, having no doors or roof might make the all-new quieter powertrain much more appealing to the inhabitants.
Manx Resorter NEV Beach Buggy For Four
The New Manx Resorter NEV
Curiously, a cheaper somewhat less exciting beach buggy option is available – a $49,000 long-wheelbase Manx Resorter NEV (Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle) 4-seater version that was also debuted at the show, though I’m not so sure I’d want to be in the back seat of a vehicle being chucked around on sand dunes to be honest, although the Resorter will be limited to just 25mph.
The Resorter also unavoidably looks a little more like a golf buggy than the classic aggressive style of a 2-seater beach buggy – I’m not sure that there was any way around this though!
Beach Buggy Power
The Manx Meyer 2.0 EV will arrive with two electric motors each powering a rear wheel and giving the Manx 240lb ft of torque and 202bhp.
Users can choose from a 20kWh version or a more hefty 40kWh powertrain. The latter will provide a very decent 300 miles per charge, while the former will dish out around 150.
Both options sound quite reasonable for where the Manx Meyer EV buggy is ideally likely to find itself; a crowd-pleasing coastal trip to the shops or café (yes, it will be road legal) or actual real fun on the sand.
There was a real fear that the original production beach buggy would fade into history when Bruce Meyers sold the company to Phillip Sarofim and Freeman Thomas, an automotive designer who already had the revamped VW Beetle on his resumé.
Bruce Meyers and the original Manx Meyer Beach Buggy
Sadly, Meyers died in 2021, but I am sure he would wholeheartedly approve of the electric Manx that we can now see – though maybe not of the initial price… So, here’s to the Manx Beach Buggy keeping its history present and powering on into the future.
If the all-electric Manx interests you, then you can sign up at meyersmanx.com with a $500 deposit to grab your spot in the queue.
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