The MOKE has had one of the strangest journeys of any cult car. Starting life as the Mini Moke, the original car was launched in 1964 as a British-built utility vehicle based, as the name suggests, on the ultra-compact BMC Mini designed by Sir Alec Issigonis. Issigonis was also responsible for the stripped-back Moke, in collaboration with John Sheppard, originally intended to be produced alongside the Mini but pitched at the military (mindful perhaps of Land Rover’s success in this area).
The resulting machine, known as the Buckboard concept, didn’t quite have the same go-anywhere mojo as the Land Rover. Instead the company looked to the leisure market. The result was the Mini Moke, a car that became synonymous with freewheeling 1960s style thanks to its minimal bodywork, canvas roof and compact cheeky stance. Over the years, the Mini Moke found favour in beach resorts and cult TV shows, with production switching from the UK to sunnier climes like Portugal and Australia and eventually ceasing in 1993.
The story would have stopped there were it not for the obsessions of the Hong Kong-based industrial design Michael Young. Young and Ben McCarthy oversaw the complete reshaping and re-engineering of the Moke form into something a little bit more practical for modern roads. The Electric MOKE was born, recertified for sale in the US and UK, and, initially, made in China. Now MOKE is back in the UK, with a new CEO and new ideas. We took a trip to Beaverbrook, the Surrey country house hotel that has a brace of MOKEs on its guest fleet, to sit down with new CEO Nick English to discuss his plans for the brand and experience the car for ourselves.
English will be familiar to many as the co-founder of Bremont Watches, the company he started with his brother Giles. Although he’s still on the board, English stepped back from Bremont to devote more time to this idiosyncractic but much loved British motoring brand. ‘We joked that it was a second car for a second home,’ he recalls, remembering his introduction to the brand via friend and director Matthew Vaughn, who gave the MOKE a prominent cameo in his 2024 film Argylle.
‘It has gone through all the right homologation and crash testing, even though it has no roof and no doors’
Nick English, MOKE CEO
Invited to visit the company, he found himself being drawn into its orbit and became CEO in June 2024. Back in 2022, the company was able to declare itself ‘the first heritage automotive brand to go 100 per cent electric’, a canny piece of marketing that needed more production know-how to capitalise on. ‘They knew I was passionate about manufacturing,’ English says, explaining that the company’s current set-up is to sub-contract production to specialist UK metalworkers Fablink.
Currently, there’s a full order book for this iconic product. English has big plans, but for now it’s about ‘keeping manufacturing in the UK and keeping development going to improve the car’.
‘What’s amazing about the MOKE,’ he adds, ‘is that it has gone through all the right homologation and crash testing, even though it has no roof and no doors.’
‘At speed, the Bimini roof flaps and rattles like a mainsail, but none of this really matters, because you’re enjoying the experience’
Wallpaper’s Jonathan Bell
The Surrey Hills are not St Barts, but the weather is being especially kind, so we get to experience the MOKE at its best. ‘You will immediately have a smile on your face – it’s about the journey,’ English says before we set off. A short test drive affirms this. With punchy acceleration thanks to its electric powertrain, the little car quickly gets up to speed alongside local traffic.
With a 50mph maximum, you’re not going to want to take it on any motorways, but the steering is precise, brakes are sharp, and the massive bluff front windscreen gives you a fine view of the road ahead. The two rear-seat passengers get more exposure than those up front and the car’s lack of sides (roll-down plastic is available) means they’re subjected to a fair amount of buffeting. At speed, the Bimini roof flaps and rattles like a mainsail, but none of this really matters, because you’re really enjoying the experience, not simply getting from A to B.
The MOKE’s interior is functional but far from characterless. A couple of waterproof speakers play back from the onboard radio and Bluetooth set-up, and there are everyday essentials like a heated windscreen and LED headlights. Three driving modes offer you an Eco function as well as regular mode and a more sporting, speedier option, while the car is rear wheel drive (unlike the original) and is started with a traditional key – not often found in EVs. It’s not a machine for long journeys – hence its long-standing association with islands – but it is a delightful way to travel.
The EV MOKE shares the simplicity and toughness that characterised the car from the very beginning. There have been numerous configurations and custom expressions of MOKEs over the years, as well as plenty of pop cultural cameos – the Beach Boys commissioned the late custom car specialist George Barris to make five candy-striped 'Mini Surfers' in 1966, while similarly stylised MOKEs were used in the 1960s show The Prisoner. ‘It’s a fun car you can plug in overnight and don’t mind if it gets a bit sandy when you whizz down to the beach,’ English says, pointing out that it’s way better than a golf buggy for these kinds of communities as it’s also fully road legal.
‘You don’t need a MOKE, you want one’
Nick English
English is more than aware that he’s stewarding a cult classic but doesn’t want to be stuck in the past. He enthuses about the skillsets available within the British motor industry, and the network of subcontractors and specialists that feed into the major carmakers. ‘You don’t have to go far to get the right answer [to a problem],’ he says, ‘and by bringing things like accessories and enhancements in house, you can make it a bit your own, like a watch.’
Another demonstration of the MOKE’s dexterity is the way it has navigated the legislative thicket of the global motor industry. ‘The secret here is designing a car that fits into a number of different laws around the world, from the US to the UK and Europe,’ English says. In this respect, the MOKE can be all things to all people, but we suspect a coastal bias will continue to show up in future ownership profiles.
Competition is still relatively light on the ground – there are a few knock-offs, for example, and we’ve tapped into the burgeoning trend for retro-revival EV beach buggies, including Castagna Milano’s AMI-based Fiat Topolino and Garavini Torino’s take on the same platform.
MOKE is well placed to top the lot. ‘I know first-hand how much time and energy it takes to build a brand,’ English says. ‘We’re a car company but we’re also a luxury brand: you don’t need a MOKE, you want one.’ Heading upmarket is a path this little machine is likely to take, with more interior options and higher-quality materials. ‘Our car is relatively simple, but it’s still not easy,’ he says, pointing out that compared to the watch industry, ‘the margins are night and day’.
Nevertheless, English clearly has the enthusiasm and skillset to take this very manufacturing-focused brand into a new era. ‘People love the original so much, you have to be very careful about the changes you make,’ he says, adding that Michael Young’s re-boot, while a little bigger, hewed very closely to the original Issigonis template. ‘Ultimately, we’re custodians of MOKE, whereas we are founders at Bremont,’ he concludes. ‘It’s an honour to get involved with something like this – a car that’s brought a lot of smiles over the years.’
As we wrap up our conversation on Beaverbrook’s terrace, a guest who has been sitting nearby comes over and says he couldn’t help but overhear the word ‘MOKE’. He’s an owner himself, with an original model kept in St Barts, still the key Caribbean crucible for all things MOKE-related. He departs after some animated chat, delighted to have met the man stewarding the brand into the future. ‘That's what it's about,’ English says, happy that such a perfect display of brand loyalty was right at hand.
Electric MOKE, from £35,995, MOKEInternational.com, @MOKE
Wallpaper* stayed at Beaverbrook, Leatherhead, Surrey, Beaverbrook.co.uk
