Morgan Motor Company has delayed the launch of its planned 2+2 coupé, the Morgan EvaGT, for more than two years.
The Worcestershire-based car builder originally intended to reveal its new EvaGT at next March’s Geneva motor show, having showed off the preliminary design at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in the US back in 2010.
But it is developing magnesium alloy technology that it wants to incorporate into the new machine’s design. With that in mind, Morgan now says the EvaGT will be revealed at the Geneva motor show in 2014.
During the past six months, Morgan has secured funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to allow it to participate in and manage a £1.4 million collaborative project to use revolutionary materials in a chassis application.
See early pictures of the Morgan EvaGT
Partners on the project, which is known as MagMog and began in November, include design house Penso Consulting Ltd, panel supplier Superform Aluminium, Coventry University and Magnesium Elektron UK, a specialist in magnesium usage.
The project aims to develop appropriate technologies to enable magnesium alloy to be used as the primary material in the construction of a body-in-white structure for the EvaGT.
It is hoped that the use of magnesium, which is 30 per cent less dense than aluminium, would improve the structural performance of the chassis at a reduced comparative weight.
Company chief Charles Morgan said: “While this delay is undesirable and inconvenient, we have taken the decision to pursue these projects to ensure the EvaGT is at the forefront of both environmental and safety technology.”
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