Earlier in 2024, German engineering firm HWA revealed its homage to the Mercedes 190E Evo II.
The HWA Evo replaces the Cosworth-fettled 2.5-litre four-pot with a Merc twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6, said to be good for 443bhp – or 493bhp if you want to pay even more money and get the Affalterbach performance package.
Yes, that’s right. HWA will actually build and sell these.
Only 100 examples will be made, priced from around £600,000. They do at least come with a 12-month/12,000 mile warranty, though…
Ah yes. The Morris Commercial. Back in 2019 it was released with an expected launch date of 2021.
It has a pretty simple premise. Take an iconic van, bring it up-to-date with styling cues and an electric platform, and hey presto, you have a winner.
It was set to have a 200-mile range, a 1000kg payload and a 2.5-tonne gross weight. It was said to cost £60,000.
At the press conference the Chinese backers were confident that independent businesses would use it not only for transport, but as a canny way to advertise themselves. Alas it has still not arrived. But the company’s Instagram is still active, so there’s hope yet.
We’ll cut to the chase. It weighs 1246kg. Or around half a tonne heavier than the original. Although in fairness, it’s still an extremely light EV.
Yes that’s right, another electric restomod blesses this slideshow. The Nyobolt concept was designed by Julian Thomson, the same man who designed the original Elise, and features an EV powertrain good for 470bhp.
The one-off is based on a Lotus Exige S chassis, and it’s being used as a marketing tool and test bed for Cambridge-based Nyobolt.
The firm’s battery tech slashes charging times to just a few minutes with its special tungsten anodes. It says this technology makes cars lighter and quicker to charge, which of course, lends itself to sports cars, hence the Elise.
