{"id":25480,"date":"2022-06-26T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=25480"},"modified":"2022-06-26T11:14:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T15:14:00","slug":"moke-americas-street-legal-open-top-mini-electric-cars-want-to-trade-high-speed-for-high-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=25480","title":{"rendered":"Moke America’s street-legal open-top mini electric cars want to trade high speed for high fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember that fun little Jeep-lookin\u2019 Mini Moke from a WWII British military vehicle development program? It\u2019s been rehashed in several incarnations since<\/a>, but the most recent (and most stateside) is Moke America, which wants to get Americans to switch from big gas guzzlers to fun little open-top electric cars.<\/p>\n

The only catch is that these aren\u2019t really electric cars.<\/p>\n

Oh, they\u2019re electric alright. They just aren\u2019t \u201ccars\u201d, at least not in the traditional sense.<\/p>\n

They fit into what\u2019s known as a Low Speed Vehicle class in the US (often colloquially known as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle).<\/p>\n

LSVs are a federally defined class of four-wheeled vehicles. They don\u2019t have to be electric, but these days 99.9% of them are because it\u2019s simply easier to produce that way thanks to fewer regulations involved with emissions standards. In fact, the LSV class already has comically few regulations to begin with. <\/p>\n

There are basic safety requirements, such as being produced in NHTSA-registered factories and including certain DOT-certified safety equipment like specific windshield glass, backup cameras, EV pedestrian warning noisemakers, and seatbelts. But there\u2019s no crash testing. No light testing. No brake testing. No much testing at all. As long as they meet basic production and certification requirements and travel at top speeds of between 20-25 mph, they\u2019re pretty much golden (that\u2019s also why Chang Li vehicles and other imported Chinese mini-EVs<\/a> are almost never street legal in the US as they can\u2019t meet these DOT and NHTSA certification requirements).<\/p>\n

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But Moke America\u2019s CEO and Founder Todd Rome says his are the real deal<\/a> and that they\u2019re assembled for each customer at the company\u2019s factory in Sarasota, Florida. Apparently conforming to federal LSV laws, the little vehicles are even street legal on most US roads with a speed limit posted up to 35 mph (56 km\/h), as per LSV statutes in the US.<\/p>\n

Referred to as simply \u201cMokes\u201d, Moke America\u2019s vehicles offer a top speed of 25 mph (40 km\/h) from their 7.5 kW continuous rated and 15 kW peak rated electric motors. <\/p>\n

A 12 kWh lead acid battery pack offers an all-electric range of 40 miles and can be recharged from a conventional wall outlet, though the lead acid battery technology is nearly as old as the original WWII Mini Mokes. <\/p>\n

According to Rome, the company has sold over 4,000 Mokes since its inception in 2016, bringing in over $100M in revenue (though it is unclear if that is just US or total international sales). If that sounds like a lot of cash for not a lot of vehicles, you\u2019re right. But there\u2019s a simple explanation. Each one is ridiculously expensive.<\/p>\n

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A Moke starts at just under $22,000. And that\u2019s for the bare bones base model. Want tunes? A stereo costs extra. Want floor mats? That\u2019s extra too. <\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re cool with a basic model to ferry around you and three friends in style, you can do it for a mere $21,975. Well, plus a 3% shipping fee. And an additional delivery charge. And of course the 4% credit card fee.<\/p>\n

Ok, so the charges start to rack up here to north of $24k, but that apparently hasn\u2019t stopped thousands of other folks.<\/p>\n

And they sure do look like fun, though if the marketing video below is to be believed then it appears the most common customers are blonde women driving to their yoga classes.<\/p>\n

In all seriousness though, this class of vehicle actually has real utility in the right location. While a 25 mph vehicle isn\u2019t going to help you much on your highway commute, there are other key markets in the US where slower and simpler EVs could be quite useful. City residents living in crowded urban areas, coastal and island communities, gated neighborhoods and sprawling suburbia are all key markets for LSVs.<\/p>\n

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