If you’re a lover of all things Lilly Pulitzer, what better way to embrace your inner Lilly than a Lilly Pulitzer-adorned, all-electric Moke urban cruiser from Moke America?
The car maker is partnering with the Florida fashion legend to celebrate the Lilly Pulitzer brand’s 65th anniversary with this adorable, limited edition electric runabout.
How adorable? The Moke is decorated in a signature Lilly “Just Wing It” vinyl wrap in pink and green, with a matching fringed canvas top. Choose from white-painted 14-inch wheels, or go all-out with retina-searing “peony pink” rims and pink bumpers.
And just in case your fellow road users are confused as to what the crazy color scheme is all about, the spare wheel hanging off the back comes with the famous Lilly Pulitzer signature on a gray and white cover.
Climb aboard – not too difficult considering there are no actual doors – and you’ll find a “Just Wing It” dash, peony pink steering wheel and tennis-ball-size pink shifter knob. By comparison, the refrigerator-white vinyl seats look positively restrained.
In case you’ve been living a million miles from the shopping mecca that’s Tampa’s International Plaza, you’ll know the cool wheels of choice these days is an electric Moke. A baby-blue version with a stripy-blue top is my favorite.
Never heard of a Moke? They first appeared in 1964 when the British Motor Corporation in merrie olde England started cranking them out.
Originally intended as a lightweight, go-anywhere army vehicle, they gained fame when Brigitte Bardot was photographed driving one around St. Tropez.
This all-electric version has little in common with the original apart from that iconic styling. It’s longer, wider and heavier and, interestingly, built down the road in Sarasota.
Of course a Moke is not for everyone. It’s a so-called LSV, or Low Speed Vehicle, which means its top speed is restricted to 25 mph. Think of it as a glorified golf cart that’s perfect for spinning heads in shopping streets, gated communities, or cruising to the beach.
Mokes are fully street-legal, so long as the street has a 35 mph or less speed limit. Trips across the Howard Frankland are not recommended, or allowed.
As for the mechanical bits, it’s all pretty primitive and a million miles from the latest crop of EV electric vehicles. Up front, driving the front wheels, is a 20-horsepower electric motor juiced by a bank of simple lead-acid batteries. They’ll give a range of around 40 miles with eight hours needed for a full recharge using a domestic 120-volt outlet.
Just a month or so ago however, Moke America announced it would be offering a lithium-ion battery upgrade to stretch the range to either 50 miles with a 160 amp hour/60-volt battery, or a whopping 75 miles with the beefier 175 AH/72-volt pack.
While the first Lilly Mokes aren’t due to arrive until later this spring, I recently got to try out a regular version and loved every minute. No, it’s not slingshot-fast like a Tesla, but it scoots off the line and hits its 25 mph top speed in around six seconds.
While 25 mph may not seem too rapid, with the wind whipping around that upright windshield, the steering wheel twitching in your hands, and the wheeee from the electric motor buzzing in your ears, it feels more like 75 mph.
With the weight of the batteries – the Moke tips the scales at a solid 2,300 pounds – together with nicely weighted, pin-sharp steering and grippy 14-inch rubberware, this teeny four-seater scoots around curves like a go-kart. Slotting into a parking space outside a Lilly store couldn’t be easier.
Pricewise, Moke America is obviously capitalizing on the Lilly Pulitzer connection, so this special edition comes with a $33,975 price tag. A standard version starts at around $23,000.
As for cruising around town in such a cool, fun-filled, grin-inducing vehicle? Priceless. I’m sure Miss Lilly would have approved.
