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Buyers will need to provide their own Mini Moke and up to an additional $140,000 for an all-electric 72kW/175Nm, ADR-compliant classic.
Electric Cars
The original, off-beat Mini Moke has gone electric thanks to an Australian engineering company that is building conversion kits for the classic convertible.
Jaunt Motors, an electric vehicle (EV) conversion company, has produced a platform that is completely Australian Design Rules (ADR) compliant that will bring the Moke into the modern era.
This means the Moke EV can be registered in Australia and “been engineered to meet modern safety standards,” according to Jaunt.
Fitted with a single electric motor, the tailpipe emissions-free Moke features a 50kW/175Nm output, boosted to 72kW/175Nm in sport mode.
This is significantly more power and torque offered by locally delivered Mokes with a 1275cc engine, which is estimated to output around 39kW/84Nm.
With a relatively small 400-volt 19kWh battery, Jaunt claims the new Moke EV is “lighter than the original” to maintain “and even improve” handling characteristics and enable a 0-100km/h acceleration claim of 7 seconds.
The battery is also rated for an estimated claimed 180km driving range when full, which can be recharged in around two and half hours with a home charger.
Buyers also have the option of fitting a CCS2 DC fast-charging capability, reducing the 20-80 per cent recharge time from around 90 to 30 minutes, while vehicle-to-load (V2L) bi-directional charging is also available.
Aside from the powertrain change, the Jaunt kit also includes new drive shafts, cooling, and a dashboard.
However, the EV conversion will not come cheap, with trade pricing for workshops starting from $90,000, or $140,000 for customers, excluding the donor vehicle.
For that money, buyers could have a brand-new Tesla Model Y (from $58,900 before on-road costs), or even Hyundai Ioniq 5 N (from $110,383).
Jaunt Co-Founder and CEO Dave Budge argues however, a new EV does not have the same character as converting an older model to electric.
“Classic cars are charming,” said Budge.
“They’ve got stories, they’ve got soul. But they’re also unreliable and are getting harder to maintain. What we’re doing isn’t about reinventing the car. It’s about keeping what was great and fixing everything that wasn’t.”
Electric Cars Guide
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
