Over the past year, amid a poor investment climate, many automotive startups have failed, but resurgent British company Morris Commercial has persevered and is determined to launch into production of its Morris JE electric van in early 2024.
The original British company Morris Commercial Cars existed from 1924 to 1975, its most famous model being the Morris J-type delivery van, one of the symbols of Britain's rebirth after World War II. The simple, compact and unpretentious Morris J-type allowed many private entrepreneurs to stand on their own feet, and its funny appearance made it a cult model and a collector's item later on.
.jpg» />Morris J-type (left) and its electric successors Morris JE
In 2017, an energetic Chinese entrepreneur, Dr Qu Li, created a new company in the UK, Morris Commercial, with the aim of producing modern electric vans with a Morris J-type design, the project was named Morris JE, its design was presented in November 2019, at the same time the company announced that the Morris JE will go on sale at the end of 2021. p>The COVID-19 pandemic and the well-known geopolitical events that began last year disrupted Morris Commercial's plans: neither sales nor production of Morris JE began, although the company participated in many exhibitions and is enviably active on social networks. Now Morris JE can only be pre-ordered, the configurator works — in it you can customize not only the Morris JE van itself, but also a pickup truck or minivan based on it.
Morris Commercial today announced that it has successfully completed a major funding round by securing the backing of Capital for Colleagues (C4C) investment fund in exchange for a shareholding and C4C's board seat. The new financial injection will allow the company to quickly prepare Morris JE for production, certify it and launch it for sale — the first shipments to customers are scheduled for early 2024.
The Morris JE project itself has not changed in any way since 2019, even the price is the same and quite high — from 60,000 pounds per copy (for this money in the UK you can buy, for example, a new Porsche 718 in a decent configuration). The high price is due to the modest production volume (the company plans to make about 1000 copies of the Morris JE per year), rich equipment, exquisite trim and high-tech design.
The Morris JE is based on an aluminum skateboard platform of its own design, and the body is entirely made of composite materials — mainly carbon fiber, which uses recycled carbon fiber. The declared gross weight of the Morris JE is 2.5 tons, the carrying capacity is 1 ton, the body capacity is up to 6.5 cubic meters. There are still no details about the power plant, it is only known that the maximum range on a single charge will be 250 miles (402 km). The maximum charging power is 50 kW, it will allow you to recharge the battery from 20 to 80% in half an hour.
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Full technical data is likely to be released closer to launch — let's hope Morris Commercial succeeds.