Morgan EVA Concept (Foto Ufficiali)

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Riporto su questa vecchia discussione per pubblicare la (bella) intervista di Car and Driver a Charles Morgan.

Punti principali:

- La Eva Gt è in arrivo per il 2014 e sarà costruita con largo uso di magnesio.

- La Threewheeler è un successo senza precedenti, con più di 1000 ordini duplicherà i numeri annuali della casa.

Volkswagen is investing $86 billion in R&D over the next five years and Morgan builds cars using wood. The 200-odd-employee company will never post a nine-figure profit, as VW does, but Morgan will double its 2011 sales in 2012. How’s that for growth? To learn more about the 3-wheeler, electric roadsters, and a 100-year-old legacy, we traveled to Morgan’s HQ in Malvern Link, Worcestershire County. It’s a typical British countryside town—with five blocks of urban grit surrounded by nowhere—and it was there that we sat down with boss and heir, Charles Morgan.

C/D: What is the philosophy of Morgan cars?

CM: The Classic, the Plus 8 with classic styling and an aluminum chassis, the Aero, the 3-wheeler. They’re all actually about the same thing: How can you make driving still a lot of fun? The philosophy of Morgan is that you do that through making the cars as communicative as possible. You’re prepared to put up with an awful lot of compromises to get that [feel]. Surprisingly, I’ve driven one a lot, in very, very poor weather, and you sort of cope with it, and you put up with it because of that feel.

People want quality and individualism, but also minimalism. We’ve got to distill that for a car, but also give them something that’s affordable. The 3-wheeler is designed from aluminum instead of steel. There’s very little plastic anywhere on the car. If you pick each part of the 3-wheeler and examine it individually as an object, they’re all beautiful. You can’t say that about most car parts (chuckles).

The Classic still provides you with that wonderful feel of a sports-racing car of the 1950s. It’s the noise of the engine, the smell of nature, combined a little bit with the smell of mechanics. You’re really experiencing the sinewing curves of the road. Modern sports cars are all GT cars, closed boxes, designed to do 200 miles an hour—which is completely irrelevant. Even the acceleration doesn’t feel that fast because you’re not experiencing any of the forces. So what’s the point, really? On a racetrack it’s a different matter. But on the road it rather looks like a sledgehammer to crack a nut. So I think in a way, people might move back towards experience. These sophisticated additions to convertibles—if it isn’t a folding metal roof, it’s an airscarf—mean these cars have become terribly heavy. That’s no sports car at all.

Will Morgan return to the U.S.?

The 3-wheeler will definitely be there in July, and it’s classified as a motor tricycle. It’s appealing to a new group. It appeals very much to the more adventurous young people. I think that’s the sort of mountain bike, kite-surfing crowd. They see it as really cool. Many can’t afford it at the moment, but by God they’re followers. We’re hoping to get it around $40,000 to $45,000 in the States.

I am keen to get back into America, I really am. I still think Morgan is very well known in America, and we are ideally suited to some of your regions: California, Florida, Connecticut. The recognition is still good, in spite of not really being in the market for a while.

We’re going to try to get into the States with the Plus 8. We do have smart airbags in it in Europe, using a well-known Continental system, but it doesn’t meet the very latest standard. We’re asking [NHTSA] for a dispensation, because it would be a huge hardship for a small company. If not, we have a [car in development] that will be ready in 2014. We’re working with Continental, one of the biggest suppliers in the world, and it is a fully validated program.

What is the future for Morgan’s product range, other than the 3-wheeler?

The Aero range does continue, and sells in Europe. It sells now as a coupe. The reason for that is that we have pretty bad weather in some of our countries. And there is still a market for it. It very much is a limited-edition car. Quite often people ask us to do very specific things for the interior.

We are building another prototype of the Plus E, the electric Morgan. It’s absolutely extraordinary what difference the gearbox makes. It suddenly turns an electric car into a proper sports car. We hope to bring that to the U.S., also. Sales of the Plus E aren’t going to make or break the company, but it’s important.

The EvaGT is a very live project which, basically, we’re looking at building. The goal is to have a four-seater that weighs no more than a two-seat car. We’re doing a project with two big suppliers to make the car out of magnesium, which is about 20 percent lighter than aluminum. It will launch in 2014.

There is a perception that the Classic is still very old technology. That’s fair, to be honest, and that to an extent is our core market. While those people are still out there, I don’t want to disappoint them. They are passionate about classic cars. They know their history really well.

Tell us about the business side. How does Morgan get by as a small, independent company?

In the 1990s, we were selling 500 cars a year. Last year we were up to about 750. And then suddenly you have the 3-wheeler, which is that just on its own. Effectively the 3-wheeler has doubled our volume. [someone else at the company tells us there are more than 1000 orders for the 3-wheeler—Ed.]

Morgan is wholly family owned. Our investment is internally generated. That’s why something like what we’re doing with the 3-wheeler is a big strain because, while it may sound fantastic to double your volume, which is what everybody wants, that comes with costs before you do it. Many companies can go through a period of big problems. We’re run very professionally but we’re family owned. We’re very cautious but we’re also very long-term. We’re prepared to take a bit of a dip in profit in order to actually have the growth of the company. The company has grown immensely. Gross is up to almost £50 million [$81 million] annually. We will generate a lot of profit from the higher turnover, which means we can make the next stage, which is to revamp the Aero model.

Where would you like to see the company go?

We’re very cautious. You’ve seen the articles—there are some small companies that have overestimated the volume they would be selling. I think it’s worth it to look at another type of product. It won’t be a 4×4. We’re not the same as those companies. I’m not being critical, because everybody has to have collaboration if they’re going to build a viable car. I think the difference with Morgan is that whereas even Bentley is part of the Volkswagen Group, Morgan being independent can actually do it a different way. We need our collaboration with BMW, but we can choose our own platforms using the electronic and powertrain architecture of BMW. There is room for innovation on a smaller scale, which may then be used by the bigger industry if it works. So making cars out of trick materials may be best to try with our cars, and if it works, great.

C/D‘s Take on Morgan Motors

How’s this for clever? After Morgan opened a small museum on the grounds about a year ago, it started giving formal tours. Employees say they’re seeing 100 to 200 visitors per day. Not only does that underscore the popularity of the brand, but each visitor is paying £10 ($16) a head for the hour-long tour, given by the company archivist. Add in a trip to the snack bar afterwards (with beautiful pastries and cakes, of course) and a well-stocked gift shop with desirable stuff, and we’re estimating that Morgan Motors is taking in $1–2 million a year just from people wanting to see a place where cars are still crafted.

This is just one example of how Morgan is a small company doing it right. Morgan isn’t taking moon shots chasing big automakers. There are no investors in distant banks making the decisions. Rather, this is a company that understands its unique selling point—roadsters, truly individual styling, 100 years of heritage, and coachbuilding.