Photo: via Meyers Manx
When Volkswagen said that it was willing to sell its MEB platform to small car manufacturers, the Meyers Manx immediately came to mind. It is probably the most iconic vehicle ever built over the Beetle architecture, and a modern electric Meyers Manx could follow suit. Although we have no idea if that will ever be the case, we do know that the company is working on an electric vehicle.
Thank TechCrunch for that. It revealed that after covering Coreshell, a battery tech startup that has developed a nanolayer coating solution that increases battery capacity by more than 30% and increases heat tolerance by 200%. The best news is that it does all that to current cells, with no need to develop new manufacturing techniques or invest billions in transforming existing battery plants to adopt it.
As appealing as this new technology is, we have to confess that we are way more interested in the car. According to the article, the electric beach buggy that Meyers Manx is currently developing will be the first vehicle to present the Coreshell technology.
That means that Meyers Manx will not buy a platform from another company as it used to do to build its original car. It is probably developing the platform and at least collaborating with its cell supplier to get Coreshell onboard.
Could the American buggy maker be talking to Volkswagen? If it were, we would probably have heard that the German brand is also investing in Coreshell and planning to apply the nanolayer to its unified battery, which will work with several different chemistries under the same format. If we didn’t, either Volkswagen does not want that to be disclosed, or it has nothing to do with the new Meyers Manx, which is the most substantial possibility at this point.
TechCrunch clarifies that the company is heading that way because Phillip Sarofim is involved with both companies. Sarofim is the founder and CEO of Trousdale Ventures, which helped Coreshell raise $12 million in a Series A round. He is also chairman of Meyers Manx and intends to help the company adapt to modern times while sticking to its mission of “bringing adventure and fun to the world.”
An electric dune buggy would be fantastic to preserve the environments that welcome its use. It would also be much more stable than the original Meyers Manx ever was, thanks to the lower center of mass that battery packs offer. We will not even mention the massive torque of electric motors.
Whether it takes Coreshell’s technology into production lines or not, we are now anxious to see the electric Meyers Manx. Its competitors should take notes and start working on electric buggies as soon as possible.
As appealing as this new technology is, we have to confess that we are way more interested in the car. According to the article, the electric beach buggy that Meyers Manx is currently developing will be the first vehicle to present the Coreshell technology.
That means that Meyers Manx will not buy a platform from another company as it used to do to build its original car. It is probably developing the platform and at least collaborating with its cell supplier to get Coreshell onboard.
Could the American buggy maker be talking to Volkswagen? If it were, we would probably have heard that the German brand is also investing in Coreshell and planning to apply the nanolayer to its unified battery, which will work with several different chemistries under the same format. If we didn’t, either Volkswagen does not want that to be disclosed, or it has nothing to do with the new Meyers Manx, which is the most substantial possibility at this point.
TechCrunch clarifies that the company is heading that way because Phillip Sarofim is involved with both companies. Sarofim is the founder and CEO of Trousdale Ventures, which helped Coreshell raise $12 million in a Series A round. He is also chairman of Meyers Manx and intends to help the company adapt to modern times while sticking to its mission of “bringing adventure and fun to the world.”
An electric dune buggy would be fantastic to preserve the environments that welcome its use. It would also be much more stable than the original Meyers Manx ever was, thanks to the lower center of mass that battery packs offer. We will not even mention the massive torque of electric motors.
Whether it takes Coreshell’s technology into production lines or not, we are now anxious to see the electric Meyers Manx. Its competitors should take notes and start working on electric buggies as soon as possible.
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