First Drive: The Electric Moke Is a Cracking Good Time

Meet the Moke. You might have seen its ancestors cruising beach towns in the Caribbean or stealing cameos in a Bond movie. The first-generation Moke was a basic drive with a breezy charm that captivated celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot, Paul McCartney, and the Beach Boys, who in 1966 drove candy-striped Mokes customized by George Barris. The 2024 Moke is also basic and breezy. But other than that—and the name—it has nothing in common with the original, a car that started life as a failure.

In 1959, shortly after the launch of the original BMC Mini, designer Alec Issigonis devised a small, lightweight military vehicle that could be air-dropped into combat. Codenamed Buckboard, it comprised a square-edged open body made from simple steel pressings, to which were bolted the front and rear subframes from the Mini, the front cradling the Mini’s innovative transverse-mounted drivetrain.

In many ways the Buckboard was an ingenious idea. But there was one big problem, though. It had no ground clearance.

Running on the same 10-inch steel wheels as the regular Mini, there was precious little air between terra firma and the expensively finned aluminum sump that also housed the integrated four-speed manual transmission. The front-wheel-drive Buckboard would have trouble negotiating the average English farm track, let alone the churned-up roads and rough open ground of a war zone. Although BMC helpfully pointed out the Buckboard was light enough to be carried by four infantry soldiers if it got stuck, the British Army politely said no thanks.

BMC later returned with a prototype that had bigger wheels and more ground clearance. No luck. Its underpowered 848cc engine and front-wheel drive just couldn’t cut it in thick mud, deep snow, or rocky terrain. Undeterred, BMC then built another prototype that had four-wheel drive, getting drive to the rear wheels by simply installing a second Mini powertrain at the rear of the car. One of these prototypes was even shipped to America in the hope of getting the U.S. Army interested. But the military on both sides of the Atlantic took one look at a vehicle that had two engines and two shift levers and was still only marginally capable and took a hard pass.

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If at First You Don’t Succeed …

As BMC had spent a not inconsiderable sum of money on engineering and tooling the Buckboard, the company decided to build a civilian version of the car, aimed at farmers who, decades before UTVs were a thing, needed a cheap, road-legal workhorse. Launched in January 1964, it was called the Mini Moke, the Moke name being an archaic name for a mule, and it was a bare-bones machine, sold with a single seat and a single windshield wiper, an open-sided canvas top, and available only in a single color, Spruce Green.

The Moke took almost 22 seconds to accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill and had a top speed of just 65 mph. But classed as a commercial vehicle, the Moke was not subject to sales tax and sold for the equivalent of $13,200 (in today’s money, at today exchange rates). That made it the cheapest four-wheeled vehicle Brits could buy at the time. The Moke could, however, also be ordered with extra seats, an extra wiper, and see-through side screens that could be zipped to the car.

Thus equipped, the British farm workhorse found a second life as a beach car and resort taxi throughout the Caribbean and other countries with warm climates, such as Australia. Exports to such markets soon accounted for 90 percent of Moke production. By 1968, however, the British taxman had cottoned on to the fact most Mokes sold in the U.K. by that time also had four seats, two windscreen wipers, and the side screens and so decreed it was subject to sales tax. Sales in the U.K. slumped, and BMC, now British Leyland, shifted Moke production to its Australian subsidiary, where Mokes had been assembled since 1966.

The Moke was built in Australia until 1981, where among other things it gained 13-inch wheels and brighter paintwork, and it was exported to the United States for several years under a new model name, the Moke Californian. It was also manufactured in Portugal between 1980 and 1994. It’s been 20 years since the last original Mini Moke rolled off the production line, but it’s never really gone away, endlessly repaired and refurbished versions of the car used as tourist rentals throughout the Caribbean and the Pacific.

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In Modern Times

In 2012 Jaguar Land Rover, which owned the rights to the Moke, signed a deal with China’s Chery Automotive to produce a reengineered version of the car in China through a subsidiary company called Moke International. As part of the deal, the Moke was reimagined in 2013 by British-born and Hong Kong–based industrial designer Michael Young. Although it kept the original car’s basic form, the entire structure was new, the most notable differences being a wider hood and taller windshield and a new dash. Underneath was a new powertrain and new chassis hardware, all developed by Chery.

In 2018 Young oversaw the design of an electric-powered version of the Moke. The Moke you see here is an evolution of that car, upgraded and improved by Moke International, which is now privately owned. Moke International has spent more than $35 million reengineering the Moke’s EV powertrain, getting the car homologated for low-volume sale in the E.U. and U.S., and relocating production back to the U.K. It has also, says Moke International CCO Robin Kennedy, spent a lot of money securing the Moke trademark in more than 100 markets worldwide.

One market where the trademark issue has yet to be resolved is the U.S. And that’s why the Moke International electric Moke is not the same car as the near-identical electric Moke currently sold in the U.S. by Moke America. The Moke America car has an electric motor that produces 20 hp and 75 lb-ft of torque powered by four AGM (absorbent glass mat) lead-acid batteries that deliver a range of 40 miles and a top speed of 25 mph. It is classified as a low-speed vehicle, like a street-legal golf cart.

The Moke International Moke, by contrast, is a real car. Kennedy says his company’s Moke has been homologated in the E.U. as a road vehicle under ultra-low-volume production regulations and was this year granted approval by NHTSA to sell 325 cars in the U.S. (the first are being delivered to the Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club in Miami, Florida). It has a 44-hp, 96-lb-ft e-motor mounted at the rear axle. It receives power from a 10.8-kWh lithium-ion battery that gives it WLTP-certified range of 54 miles, and up to 80 miles if driven gently. Top speed is 50 mph.

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Vintage Feel

The driving position is vintage Moke, which means an upright steering wheel between splayed legs and, with the seat cushion above the boxy side sills, lots of fresh air all around you. The instrumentation is rudimentary, and there’s a handful of clunky switches for things like lights and switching drive modes from Eco to Beach to Normal, the latter reportedly offering the most power (in truth, you can’t feel much difference between any of them). The windshield is a flat plane of glass, and a roll cage provides anchor points for the seatbelts. Gear selection is by way of buttons in a vestigial center console.

The Moke weighs just 1,633 pounds, so it responds briskly when you squeeze the accelerator. Kennedy says it will accelerate to 30 mph in 4.5 seconds, and although that’s hardly the stuff of supercars, it’ll easily keep the Moke moving along with the traffic around the upscale resorts, busy beach towns, and small communities that are its target market.

The non-assisted steering is heavy at low speeds but lightens up once you get the Moke rolling, and at 2.75 turns lock-to-lock, quickly gets the nose of the car pointed in the direction you want. The brakes are discs up front and drums at the rear, and they’re unassisted, too. But the pedal feel is good, which is helpful as there’s no ABS. The generously sidewalled tires—165/55 on 13-inch wheels—add a syrupy veneer of compliance to deliver a decent ride from what is otherwise a relatively firmly tuned coil-spring suspension.

Unlike the original, this electric-powered Moke is of course rear drive, so you hear the occasional scrabble from the rear wheels when you punch the accelerator out of a gravel-strewn T-junction. Will it drift? Probably only on sheet ice. Does it matter? Not in the least. The Moke’s light weight, instant-on torque, and sharp steering conspired to make it feel livelier than expected on the narrow lanes through leafy Surrey, just south of London, that formed part of our test drive route. It’s a proper car. A slow car, to be sure, but endearingly analog in character despite its electric powertrain.

Moke Money, Moke Problems?

In the context of modern EVs, the Moke is mostly a modest thing, modest in performance and modest in range. Price, not so much. In the U.K. the Moke sells for the equivalent of about $46,600 (including local taxes). There are 10 electric cars that you can buy right now in the U.S. for less money. What’s more, they’ll take you farther, faster than the Moke. But they won’t make you feel like you’re on vacation when you’re behind the wheel. And that’s what makes the Moke unique.

ends