20 July/August 2024 | E-Mobility Engineering Reinventing its classic 3 Wheeler for the modern world, Morgan has chosen Fellten to electrify the XP-1 prototype, reports Rory Jackson The power of three While the Morgan Motor Company has long been known for such unique practices as the handcrafting of its exclusive production runs, iconic car designs that include its classic 3 Wheeler roadster configuration (and its successor, the Super 3) and the use of wood in construction, in more recent years it has grabbed headlines for committing itself to the new age of electrification. The fully-electric Morgan XP-1 is a love letter to the British company’s aforementioned three-wheeled creation, but as our seasoned readers will know, the process of electrifying or resto-modding a beloved automotive icon is fraught with myriad ways in which one can ruin everything that enthusiasts loved about its fuelburning predecessor. Maintaining the 3 Wheeler’s unusual appearance in the XP-1 is one thing; recapturing the dynamism and fun of driving it with an electric powertrain is another entirely. The challenge of this latter hurdle may be the biggest reason for Morgan choosing to partner primarily with Fellten for its electrification needs. Headquartered in Bristol, UK, Fellten was founded about six years ago by now-CEO Chris Hazell and now-CTO Alex Dawood, who met not long before through a shared passion for converting iconic cars into EVs, which culminated in their creation of three stunt cars for the Elekron show in Macau, China. At the time, the pair were veritably the only ones converting internal combustion engine (ICE) cars into EVs using 400 V systems, so they rapidly gained interest and customers, soon turning their attention to a long-term business model of manufacturing plug-and-play conversion systems for popular car models, including Porsches, Classic Minis and Land Rover Defenders. Today, Fellten designs and produces these systems, supplying them to trade specialists around the world, who install them for their end-customers. These systems are intended to be simple enough for any mechanical engineer with at least a two-day electrical safety course to install (the term ‘kits’ is avoided due to being reductive, and implying a collection of parts that specialists must assemble and make work together), although Fellten also provides hefty training for the correct handling and integration of high-voltage battery packs, as well as other key powertrain components. A unique point of Fellten’s systems is that they are often created through partnerships with the pertinent manufacturer responsible for each car brand and designed to be fully reversible, allowing Fellten-converted vehicles to be converted back into fuel cars, or further modified to use alternate, Morgan selected Fellten to electrify its 3 Wheeler into the XP-1 largely due to the latter’s successes in retaining the driving feel and fun of classic cars (Images courtesy of Fellten)
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