Yeah, yeah, we get it. Most Street Muscle fans aren’t big on the electrification of the automobile. But like darkness after dusk, the biggest change in the auto industry is coming and there is no way to stop it. While that might sound depressing, we have good news. What if there were an EV that was so useful, so easy to live with, and so effen cool, that all would be forgiven? That would be the killer app of EVs, to say the least.

Meyers Manx, the small California-based carrozzeria noted for dropping a fiberglass body on a VW belly pan chassis and igniting the dune buggy craze back in the day, just unveiled its first new car in six decades. Christened the Manx 2.0 Electric, it’s a rethink of the original buggy, with battery propulsion and modern accouterments.

Forget about an old VW Beetle chassis’, this new Manx will ride on a modern platform with independent suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, and electrically assisted steering.

With a choice of either a 20-kWh or a 40-kWh battery pack, the new era Manx will be rear-drive via two electric motors. Power figures are hazy but the best guess is 202 hp and 240 lb-ft of torque while delivering 300 miles of range with the bigger pack. The Manx could sprint to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, so this little kitty might have some serious scoot.

A guy named Philip Sarofim bought the rights to the Meyers Manx name in 2020 just before Bruce Myer died. Sarofim says it will partner with a US-based manufacturer to build the Manx 2.0, with plans to deliver the first 50 cars to customers by 2023, using early adopters as beta testers to provide feedback. Deliveries for finished production cars will begin in 2024. Pricing has yet to be released, but this looks like the killer EV app that will melt the cold, cold hearts of petrol heads everywhere.