British lightweight sports car specialist Caterham has unveiled its latest concept, the Project V at this year’s edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Project V is a fully electric two-seater coupé concept car penned by chief designer Anthony Janarelly, and is built by Italdesign.
The Project V is a radical departure from the diminutive, minimalist open-air two-seater Seven range of models which was itself derived from the Lotus Seven, that dates back to 1957.
In the carmaker’s adoption of electric propulsion, the Project V also employs a carbon-fibre and aluminium composite chassis with composite bodywork, and measures 4,255 mm long, 1,893 mm wide and 1,226 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,581 mm.
The Project V weighs 1,190 kg with all required fluids without occupants; for comparison, the petrol-powered Super Seven 1600 weighs 565 kg. The Project V is powered by a 272 PS permanent magnet synchronous motor that operates at 400 volts.
This is fed by a twin-pack 55 kWh lithium-ion battery offering a range of up to 400 km on the WLTP testing cycle, and can be recharged from 20-80% in 15 minutes using a 150 kW DC charger, according to Caterham. Performance-wise, the Project V is estimated to do the 0-100 km/h sprint benchmark in under 4.5 seconds, and reach a top speed of 230 km/h.
Its chassis employs a double wishbone layout for the front and rear suspension along with fully adjustable geometry, while steering is electrically assisted and disc brakes feature front and rear with high-performance calipers. Wheels measure 19 and 20 inches in diameter front and rear, respectively, and are shod in 235/35R19 and 285/30R20 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.
The show car employs a 2+1 seating layout, while a 2+2 is optional, and has been optimised for easier entry and egress, offering greater comfort for the rear seat passenger and better flexibility in how an owner may use the car.
A digital instrument panel provides key information, while a driver-focused infotainment unit offers smartphone mirroring. A trio of drive modes – Normal, Sport and Sprint – offer different acceleration and steering characteristics.
With engineering and manufacturing feasibility studies conducted through its development process, the production version of the Project V “could arrive” in late-2025 or early 2026, says Caterham, with prices targeted to start from 80,000 pounds sterling (RM475,320).
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to be frank,
it is too far removed from the current Caterham’s, or even compared to the current Elise. Wouldn’t this thing alienate the existing Caterham owners and enthusiasts?
Its silhouette reminds me alot of the Artega GT, maybe it got the Artega aluminium chassis underneath that bodywork?
80K pounds is a lot, when most current Caterham’s is around 40k.
Can this coachbuilt italdesign car be build back in Caterham workshop?
They realized that enthusiasts cant generate enough money…
Great design, but slower than upcoming Volvo EX30.. so it’s a slow sportscar.
fun fact caterham was a f1 team that once race under the malaysian flag and was led by tony fernandes which score 0 point in their 5 season. 3 season under team lotus (there were 2 lotus in f1) 2 under the caterham name. they have good driver like kamui kobayashi, heikki kovelainen, vitaly petrov and many other but their car was awfully slow mostly due to tony fernandes not knowing how to run a f1 team lol.