Meyer Manx 2.0 Is Powered by Electricity, Able to Go From 0 to 60 MPH in 4.5 Seconds

The company is saving most details for this premiere, but it already revealed that it will have two battery pack options, with 20 kWh or 40 kWh. The former has an estimated range of 150 miles (241.4 kilometers), while the latter gets you double the range: 300 miles (482.8 km).

Curiously, the larger unit is just a bit heavier than the 20-kWh battery pack. The Meyers Manx 2.0 weighs around 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) with it and 1,650 lb (748 kg) with the 40-kWh unit. It is surprising to imagine that the extra 20 kWh imply only adding 150 lb (68 kg) to the vehicle. Either Meyers Manx has something unexpected to reveal, or these numbers are wrong.

One surprise the battery pack may contain is the Coreshell technology In the story that revealed Meyers Manx was creating an electric dune buggy, TechCrunch said that Phillip Sarofim was the link between the two companies. Sarofim helped fund the battery startup, which promises a nanolayer coating solution that increases battery capacity by more than 30% and increases heat tolerance by 200%. He also bought Meyers Manx in 2020, a few months before Bruce Meyers died in 2021. Meyers said both he and Freeman Thomas were the right guys to take care of it.

Thomas is the company's CEO and the designer behind the original Audi TT, the Volkswagen New Beetle, and the Jeep Treo concept car, among many others. He designed the Meyers Manx 2.0.

Although it looks pretty similar to the original dune buggy, only the housing for the headlights is the same. Everything else is new, including the all-aluminum monocoque, which can make the Meyers Manx 2.0 really well suited for sandy beaches. It will be pretty protected against the corrosion usually associated with such scenarios.

The bad news is that only 50 units of the electric dune buggy will be sold in 2023. That’s on purpose: Meyers Manx wants to conduct a Beta program to check with these first owners what it needs to improve before making the EV in higher numbers.

The company said it wants to keep a close relationship with these clients and that they will help develop the final production car. Apart from owning collectible prototypes (if they get to keep them), we don’t see what is in there for these customers. That will probably be announced later this month.

Meyers Manx did not disclose the technical specifications for the electric dune buggy because they may still change. Despite that, we know that the new EV has independent rear suspensions. The original one also did, but we hope the sudden camber changes of the Beetle design have been eliminated.

One main difference the electric dune buggy has from its predecessor is that it has two electric motors for the rear axle instead of only one. These motors are probably also not installed at the rear, which improves the handling even more than the low center of mass the battery pack will represent. We have no idea if they are related to Volkswagen in any way.

These motors are expected to deliver 202 hp (151 kW) and 240 pound-feet (325 Nm) on the 40-kWh Meyers Manx 2.0. This car will also be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (97 kph) in only 4.5 seconds.

Considering the primary purpose of this new electric dune buggy is to have fun, it does not need fast charging, but the company will offer it anyway – as an option, mind you. The onboard charger capacity is 6 kW.

We’ll learn everything that is still missing on August 19, when the company will also open pre-orders for those that want an actual production car in 2024. Applications to those willing to be among the 50 first owners – for whatever Meyers Manx has to offer them – will begin on the same day. The new electric dune buggy will be just the first of other Meyers Manx products Thomas and his team are trying to conceive. They certainly have our attention.