Morgan might not be the first name you think of when it comes to electric vehicles, but the boutique British automaker has dabbled with EVs in the past. In 2023, the company showed off an electric Three-Wheeler with 61 horsepower and a 1,540-pound curb weight. Ultimately, though, it never made it to production.
While Morgan hasn't fully given up on the idea of a retro EV, executives aren't quite sold on electrification in its current state. In an interview with Top Gear, Morgan CEO Matthew Hole confirmed the company is working on an electric sports car, it just won't see the road anytime soon.
"We have an electric program that’s running in parallel [with ICE development]," Hole told Top Gear. "We see a future—not in the near future, in the longer-term future, post-2030—where we’ll run internal combustion engines alongside EVs."
In the meantime, Hole says the company will continue using gas engines in its vehicles "for as long as we possibly can." The company’s biggest hurdle to EV adoption, he notes, is weight. Batteries and battery packs are heavy, while Morgan aims to keep its sports cars light.
"For us, it is all about building lightweight sports cars that are great to drive," he says. "It’s all about hand-crafting cars. That is our core."
Morgan has worked with BMW for more than two decades, sourcing the brand’s V-8, inline-six-cylinder, and inline-four-cylinder engines for its sports cars throughout that time. That partnership could continue, theoretically, with hybridization and EVs if Morgan sees BMW’s electrified powertrains as a viable option.
For now, the company will continue to fit its sports cars with BMW’s gas engines. The newest SuperSport is powered by a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six good for 335 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. Tipping the scales at just 2,579 pounds, the SuperSport sprints to 62 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 166.
