The revived Mini Moke recreational vehicle will now be produced entirely within the UK after a new agreement with manufacturing firm Fablink.
Moke International, which revived the brand in 2017 after acquiring the Moke trademark and global distribution rights, began selling a limited-edition model priced from £20,000 in the UK last year.
Initially, the Mini-based beach buggies were engineered in the UK before final assembly took place in France, but the deal with Northamptonshire-based Fablink means the cars will now be built entirely at Fablink's facilities.
Fablink, which also conducts manufacturing and engineering work for car makers such as Jaguar Land Rover and Morgan, currently has six UK production sites and employs around 700 employees.
Moke International said the deal was enabled by a UK government grant from the Niche Vehicle Network. The firm also cited the recent UK-EU tariff-free trade deal as being crucial in making it viable for purely UK-produced models to be exported to the European Union.
The firm has developed a reworked version of the Moke that, while still based on the Austin Mini-based vehicle, is slightly larger, to provide more passenger space. The company has offered a number of special editions, including three armed-forces-inspired designs to reflect the car's military origins.
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How can that be correct
Something about this feels like i've already been on the ultimately disappointing google trail with it. There've been a lot of times where i've voiced the opinion that, environmentally speaking, we could do with simple, easy to make and recycle, cars that are designed to last a good while, such as an all-aluminium 2cv. However, this isn't it.
I think that there should be a clamp down on these low volume "don't meet any legistative requirement" start-ups. You may have the design rights to a sixties car but if it's not fundamentally a resto-mod based on one the originals then it's an all new car and needs to meet safety and emissions laws.
each moke has to pass an iva test, their website shows it in the price breakdown for the military style one