I have just uploaded a news item about Caterham's plans for an EV Seven prototypes and for them to be demonstrated at Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The news item reproduces their press release here.
There will also be a multi-page story in next months LowFlying (June 2023) with an analysis and comment by me. The first few paragraphs are repeated below, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for LF for the rest.
John
Caterham Cars showcased their new EV Seven development project at the offices of Swindon Powertrain in early May. John Martin was there to find out more.
My part in this started when Bob Laishley (Caterham Cars CEO) approached me at the new factory tour in Dartford and asked “are you doing anything on the 4th of May. I’d like to get your view on something we’re doing”. With nothing else in my diary for Star Wars Day and a level of intrigue I couldn’t ignore, I said “I’m not doing anything that day, of course I’ll be there! - er… where am I going?” A few days later, once the formalities of Non-Disclosure Agreements were out of the way, I learnt that I was invited to a meeting at Swindon Powertrain for a press event about an unspecified development, though I could guess much of it given the venue!
So, I duly pitched up to Swindon Powertrains (in my 420 of course) to find I was in the company of a couple of seasoned auto-journalists, Matt Prior (Autocar) and John Barker (Evo), and that we were to be given a presentation on the EV Seven project along with a factory tour and afterwards a Q&A session with Bob and Raph Caillé (Swindon Powertrain’s CEO).
Here are some renders from the press release..
John Martin
2017 420R SV
2013 Supersport SV
Links: purplemeanie.co.uk & YouTube
Well done, Caterham.
Thanks, John.
The Swindon E Axle (HPDE).
Jonathan
An exciting development and well done to all concerned in this project
Yes, an exciting development and, as it seems, a necessity for the brand to continue strongly in to future decades. Many thanks for sharing. I will be at Goodwood Festival of Speed this year and will be really interested to see it.
I'm imagining a grid of Caterham EV supporting Formula E in cities around the world. Imagine the brand exposure!
It will be interesting to see what road use range they can get from the less powerful derivatives.
1.6K Roadsport SV
How far will it go on the road? If you live a bit too far from the circuit you'll have to trailer it there, how many fast chargers will there be at the tracks and how much will it cost. My area club blats are usually 100 miles or more so it would be no good as a road car.
With a full charge it should be able to do about 150 normal road miles, 100 blat miles or 50 track miles, going by the specs released.
James
It's a test mule, to demonstrate a technology. We shouldn't be taking it as the final word, or asking how far it can go on the road iMHO.
Absolutely.
Key wording is "when battery tech is available", which says to me that it's not quite practical yet to provide what our customers need, but it's likely tech will evolve to enable it. There's some risk here of course, but perhaps more to do with 'when', than 'if'.
I'd say it's a good looking prototype, but it looks like all the rest
. Not a bad thing of course.
Ex Academy/Roadsport
420R on order