Mika Meon review

The lightest electric car in the world is a beach buggy you've probably never heard of, made in the English Midlands

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“Imagine a beach buggy with all of the flaws taken out.” That’s how Robin Hall, the man behind an all-new instalment in the UK cottage industry’s fascinating line of lightweight sports cars, introduces what he hails as the lightest M1-class (as in, neither a microcar nor a ‘heavy quadricycle’, but a proper passenger car) electric vehicle in the world: the Mika Meon.

Hall has a history in design engineering running back several decades, and has dipped his toe into niche sports cars projects before. His early career was designing axles for the ill-fated Rover RDX60, the original BMW Group ‘R50’ Mini, the ‘X350’-generation Jaguar XJ - and the whole chassis of the Land Rover Discovery 2. Curricula vitae in UK-based mainstream vehicle engineering don’t get much more enviable.

As a freelance designer, Hall’s since penned military vehicles and single-seater track cars. His name was on the company stationary with the FBS Census sports car in 2002 (a project which bad styling and financial challenges mostly did for); and he’s just finished the design engineering of the Wells Vertige. He’s a man with an in-demand skillset, for sure. And while his design consultancy work goes on, he now has paid-up premises in Warwickshire, and the perfect stable base from which to launch a small-scale car-making outfit entirely of his own vision.

 

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DESIGN & STYLING

Mika Meon review 2024 02 side panning

Enter the intriguingly titled Meon, then. A first-principles EV, this car takes the concept of a simple, compact, function-before-form, fun-loving beach buggy fully into the 21st century. Part-funded by an award from the Niche Vehicle Network in collaboration with the UK’s Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell technologies (CENEX), the Meon was always going be electric, Hall explains (“we have built a prototype with a flat-four petrol engine, but honestly - it’s not as good”).

Much more importantly, it was always going to be purpose-built - without a single adapted or inherited structural component, or anything formerly belonging to a Volkswagen Beetle. “Anyone who’s ever driven a classic buggy will know the problems they tend to have with ‘wet kipper’ chassis rigidity, weak engines and poor ergonomics,” our man explains. “I always knew we could do so much better simply by designing something proper.” 

Thanks to its box-section steel perimeter-style chassis (cut and welded in-house by Hall and his team) and its tunnel-mounted, chassis-reinforcing 22kWh drive battery, the Meon has torsional stiffness in excess of 11,000Nm per degree (a Seven-style sports car typically comes in at about a quarter of that). Also, because Hall decided early on to make it strictly a plaything and not to worry unduly about electric range for its own sake, it weighs less than 700kg. All of the advantages of small, lightweight engineering, then - and none of the usual penalties that come with electric cars.

Real-world range is estimated by Hall himself at between 60- and 100 miles, depending entirely on how much fun you’re having at the time. “That’s far enough for a weekend blast, or probably to get to your local car club meet and back; and as far, realistically, as most people will want to drive it without a break anyway,” he says. And at that point, there’s DC rapid charging capability at up to 60kW, to put range back into the car usefully quickly.

With a bathtub-style glassfibre body, the Meon wears its buggy identity very proudly indeed. If you don’t instantly love its dinky, retro-cool, froggy-eyed, chromey-hooped appearance, you might well look at parts - the exposed, rough-looking ‘B-sides’ of the GRP tub on the bodyside, perhaps, and some of the components of the interior (our test car was a prototype, and did have some non-production-spec, 3D printed parts) - and wonder why £75,000 isn’t buying you a higher-quality finish.

But the Meon has refinements where they really matter. Hall's very first car flew through its 'IVA' single vehicle approval test without a revision, described by the VOSA examiner as "absolutely perfect". It's a car that does lightness and buggy-chic simplicity with lots of commitment, and doesn’t carry a single extra kilo for the sake of appearances.

 

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INTERIOR

Mika Meon review 2024 09 interior

The Meon is a singularly easy car to get into, and actually roomy once you’re sunken down snugly behind the lovely Sabelt steering rim. The seat and wheel were easy to position just right for this 6ft 3in tester; the sill and tunnel both at just the right height for my elbows. 

There’s some useful cargo space behind the seats of the sort that Caterham and Ariel owners could really only dream of; and the simple windscreen provides effective shelter from the wind, even if you’re tall. All I would change, if I could, is the position of the pedals, which are just a smidgeon too close to you, and offset a little too far to the left, for ideal comfort and easy access for the longer of leg (though I wouldn’t put it past Hall and his team to address that if you asked them to; because that kind of configurability is what hand-built cars are all about).

A set of cheery, centrally-set analogue instruments from Smiths, teamed with a digital display for battery power flow just above the column, tell you all the information you need to know at the wheel - and, thanks to the sound driving ergonomics and roomy cabin, road miles come really easy. There’s no option of a roof for chillier, wetter days - but plenty of lightweight sports cars are the same. In any case, you should treat with suspicion anyone who claims to get much use through the winter months out of a Lotus Seven-style car with the roof up. Cars like this are for high days and sunny holidays, and in this tester’s experience, any gesture towards wider usability is mostly pretence.

 

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Mika Meon review 2024 18 rear cornering

The 215bhp Meon has a really urgent but considered turn of speed. Almost noiseless, of course, and potent-feeling up to about 50mph - and then only gradually ebbing away around the national speed limit, once you’ve left the winding, undulating country lanes for which cars this size feel like they are made.

This car is fast where it ought to be, in other words - but won't let you burn through your battery power too quickly beyond the national speed limit for the sake of it. I can see a case for a slightly longer-geared, torquier and more powerful model in time, for those customers happier to have a faster, but even shorter-range car. But, once they appreciate the sweet compromise of performance, range and weight that has been struck here, those customers will probably be few in number.

RIDE & HANDLING

Mika Meon review 2024 19 front cornering

Enhancing the Meon’s remarkably well-mannered on-road touring abilities no end is a ride that feels superbly supple and fluent; not far from Ariel Nomad-like in its dexterity and easy close control, in fact. Hall has always preferred low suspension rates in his cars, he says; and having designed this car’s fundamentals right and put the major masses down low, he simply didn’t need anti-roll bars. 

It’s hard to believe looking at a car whose appearance is so dominated by outsize Fuchs-style alloys, and which doesn’t look like it has wheel travel to spare; but that’s precisely how the Meon feels on the road. As rigid as you like through the chassis, giving the wishbones, springs and dampers all the authority they need to soak up vertical inputs supremely well. Hall says this is very much a road car, not a dual-purpose offroader - but it certainly has the damping sophistication to deal with rough surfaces.

Hall’s preference for Michelin Pilot Sport performance tyres on the Meon’s front axle, and Latitude SUV tyres on the rear, hint at a throttle-adjustability in the car’s handling which it isn’t too shy to show off out of slower bends - or on gravel. It’s real fun.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Steering is unassisted, medium-paced and meaty in feel - but manageable in its weight, and as talkative as you’d hope. And lateral grip and body control are perfectly matched, and really well-judged for a sports cars intended for road use. The car turns with the zip and agility you expect of its size, and hangs onto apices, while the instant torque delivery to the rear wheels makes it balanced, lively and entertaining as you power out of tighter bends.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Mika Meon review 2024 01 powerslide

Since it's beaten almost all of its nearest rivals to market, the Mika Meon is quite a hard car to judge on value for money. There are certainly cheaper lightweight fun EVs you could open up your retirement purse for (the Mini Moke we tested last month, for one), while piston-powered rivals can be snapped up for considerably less (and £75k buys you a very nicely equipped Ariel Atom 4).

However, once the equivalent electric versions of the Ariel Nomad and Caterham Seven that are currently under development do make it to the road, it'd be a fool who bets of on them being a great deal cheaper than this breakthrough newcomer. Hand-building niche sports cars is time-consuming; and Mika only has the capacity to do one at a time. But that does mean supply is likely to be very low for the forseeable future - and, if demand is established, that means in turn that secondhand examples should keep their value rather well.

VERDICT

Mika Meon review 2024 23 front static

Here's the elephant in the passenger seat, then: does the delivery of the Nio-supplied electric motor feel a bit ‘appliancey’ and vapid, in a car that supplies so much texture and engagement in other departments? I’d be lying to say no; but the Meon’s appeal as a sports car overcomes the problem and then some. 

It’s an EV to its bones, remember, and simply wouldn’t exist if it had been conceived with a combustion engine instead. It reflects not only the will to demonstrate that cars of its ilk can survive the move to zero emissions - but the cold, hard reality that they must. And, though a bit niche even by niche-vehicle segment standards and no doubt quite expensive, it’s a really heartening success, turned out with the accomplished skill of an outfit that’s been doing it for decades.

 

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.