Meyers Manx brings back the buggy with electric power
Certain cars will always work better in some places than others, and it’s fair to say the original Meyers Manx beach buggy works better in Newport Beach, California than it does in Newport, Wales.
That doesn’t mean that we in the U.K. aren’t excited for the all-new Meyers Manx 2.0—a modern interpretation of the beach buggy from the company that basically invented the concept.
Bruce Meyers sadly died last year, but his name will go down in history thanks to the Meyers Manx buggy. Based on a shortened Volkswagen Beetle floorpan, around 6000 were built between 1965 and 1971, and the dozens of imitators that popped up have likely sold thousands more over the years.
The Manx 2.0, though, is the real deal: Meyers sold the rights to his company in November 2020, making the firm behind this buggy a direct descendant of the original.
The resurrected buggy isn’t, though, based on a Beetle. Rather than a fiberglass shell on top of a Beetle floorpan, the 2.0 uses an aluminum monocoque. It’s a credit to its makers that the design looks so faithful to the original, with cleverly updated touches like the hollowed oval rear lights cribbed from the contemporary Beetle.
The one big difference lies at the rear, where you won’t find a Beetle’s flat-four hanging out behind the rear axle, its various spinning gears and belts shrouded by chrome-plated tinware. The new Manx is an electric vehicle, offering a choice of 20-kWh, 150-mile, and 40-kWh, 300-mile battery options.
The latter also packs a 202-hp, 240-lb-ft electric motor, good for 60 mph in roughly 4.5 seconds. If the 2.0 looks like the original, it certainly won’t go like one. Low weight certainly helps: We’re quite used to seeing modern EVs on the wrong side of two tons, but here you’re looking at more like 1650 pounds.
Inside—what there is of a cabin, anyway–is simple and classy, with a three-spoke steering wheel of the sort you might have fitted to a Manx back in the day, and an instrument cluster that blends retro with modern in a neat way. The hard-top roof, presumably an option, seems well-integrated.
The Meyers Manx 2.0 Electric, introduced at this year’s Monterey Car Week, is set to go into production from 2024. And while we can’t promise it’d be quite as fun in Margate as it would be in Malibu, the world will surely be a better place for its existence.
