Less than 1,200 kilograms
Anyone who thinks that electric cars with a somewhat acceptable range are often quickly on the heavy side should let this Caterham Project V sink in. This is a sporty electric coupé with a range of 400 kilometers and a car weight of less than 1,200 kilograms.
With the EV Seven, Caterham recently investigated how it can build an electric car without compromising an important pillar of Caterham: low car weight. Now it has shown a production-looking concept car with which the brand looks ahead to an electric model that it will actually put into production at the end of 2025 or early 2026: the Project V. The Project V is something completely different from everything you have seen from the brand, not only by its powertrain.
A Caterham has never been as luxurious as this Project V.
The Caterham Project V is not an open cigar-shaped fun machine with the front wheels far outside the body, but a more conventional coupé in which all vital parts of the car are simply housed within the body. Caterham CEO Bob Laishley indicated at the unveiling of the electric EV Seven that Caterham would never make a model that weighs 1,000 kilograms or more. Does the car itself indeed weigh less than 1,000 kilograms? That is still the question. Caterham specifies for the Project V that the ‘roadworthy mass’ must be below 1,190 kilograms. The difference between the ‘mass ready to drive’ and the ’empty weight’ is normally 100 kilos. In addition, that weight applies to the 2+1 variant. A version with two small seats in the back should also be available in due course. Yet the Project V is certainly not a fat valve. On the contrary.
The Project V does have a nice 55 kWh of batteries, divided over two places in the soil. The batteries are good for a range of 400 kilometers. On the rear axle is a single 272 hp electric motor that propels the Caterham Project V to 100 km/h in less than 4.5 seconds. Its top speed is set at 230 km/h. Fast charging is possible with a maximum of 150 kW. The Project V owes its low weight, among other things, to its chassis made of aluminum and carbon fiber and to the body parts made of composites. Will the production version of the Project V eventually replace the Seven? That’s not the case, according to Laishley. According to him, the Seven is forever.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl