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morgan has released the following press release:
niche vehicle network funds morgan led consortium’s electric sports car demonstrator
a high quality, pure electric morgan demonstration vehicle will be developed in just 6 months.
the morgan + e project utilises a development of stunning ”aero supersports” chassis as the platform for the electric conversion, replacing the existing 4.8 litre bmw v8 engine and conventional manual/automatic gearbox with a variant of zytek’s production 70kw electric powertrain.
the consortium is made up of the following of high technology companies:
morgan motor company, have for the the past 102 years, been building unique sports cars that retain and support the philosophy of blending tradition, fun and innovation to create the ideal 'drivers car'.
morgan has vast expertise in chassis and suspension development, its own in house design department and in house manufacturing capability.
zytek automotive are based in lichfield and design, develop and manufacture a range of electric drive systems for a variety of vehicle manufacturers.
most recently, zytek managed the design and build of 100 first generation smart electric drive vehicles and has a manufacturing facility within smart’s production factory in hambach, to support the build of 2,000 smart electric drive’s that are destined for cities in the usa and europe.
radshape produce chassis structures from their birmingham manufacturing site, utilising folded aluminium sheet using a bonded and riveted construction.
they have worked with morgan on the design, development and production of aluminium chassis structures for over 12 years.
through the tsb backed niche vehicle programme, a grant of £100,000 has been awarded to the morgan consortium for collaborative research and development, to develop the electric morgan + e.
the programme started in july and will be completed by january 2012, two vehicles will be completed, one to continue a development test programme, whilst another will be used as demonstration vehicle.
.zytek automotive sales and marketing director steve tremble agrees. “one of the reasons for building the demonstrator was to show the flexibility of the 70kw e drive, which will be developed to provide compact rear wheel drive installation for a wide variety of performance car applications” he says. “we look forward to driving the morgan, our intention will be to generate drivability, performance and refinement that comfortably meets morgan drivers expectations.”
taking a vehicle like this into manufacture would be relatively simple, says tremble.
“the e-drive is a derivative of the production 70kw system currently supplied to navistar, requiring the minimum of validation” and the intended li-ion battery technology from valence has already been in volume production for more then 4 years in the automotive sector.
world-leading expertise
zytek has designed and integrated electric drive systems for a wide range of european and us vehicle manufacturers and is currently building high performance electric drivetrains up to from 25kw -70kw and new developments of a higher power e drive are being progressed rapidly to meet the growing demand for 100kw+ performance. their uk facility can accommodate up to 6,000 e drives a year in batches as low as 100, providing vehicle manufacturers with a highly flexible specialist production resource for their low carbon programmes.
source: morgan
