Caterham Project V: Lightweight EV to reach showrooms by 2026

Caterham Project V shares nothing with Seven, which has sustained the iconic British sports car manufacturer for 50 years, except for a few styling cues and, most importantly, the company’s philosophy: lightweight, simple, fun to drive. It is designed by Anthony Jannarelly and the show car is designed and manufactured by ItalDesign.

The new model will be rear-wheel drive and will be powered by two battery packs: one in front of the rear axle and one under the floor in the front pedals. Having previously favored an expanded and welded aluminum structure, Caterham is now looking at a combination of aluminium, carbonfibre and glassfibre due to the significant weight savings it offers. Quoted weight is 1190kg (including water); power is 268bhp, and performance estimates are 0-62mph ‘in the low 4s’ and a ‘top 230kph’ (143mph). According to Bob Laishley, CEO of Caterham, prices will start ‘under £80k’.

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Laishley joined Caterham as chief strategy officer briefly back in April 2021 when VT Holdings, the Japanese automotive retail giant, bought the British company. He took over as CEO a year ago and has overseen Project V, which is seen as crucial to the company’s future. ‘The Caterham Seven is 50 years old; the structure is 60 years old,’ he says. ‘If Caterham is going to survive as a brand, it needs to change.’

In March, we signed an NDA and were invited to ItalDesign in Turin to be the first to see the new car. It’s not the first time Caterham has introduced a new model, of course, with the most notable tests being 21 and CSR. Laishley’s greeting in ItalDesign’s entrance hall, with its long, white staircase and ancient columns, suggests that this time it is aiming higher and that its ambitions have major financial foundations.

It was considered redesigning one or two existing sports cars for an EV powertrain before the decision was made to start with a clean slate. Six design houses and individuals were invited to submit proposals for what the new Caterham should look like, guided by a three-page brief that said it was an EV, outlined performance targets and named a few iconic cars to inspire it. These include the original Lotus Elan, a favorite of VT Holdings president Kazuho Takahashi. The brief did not ask for a finished design but to describe the journey from Saba to the new Caterham, and the winning submission came from Anthony Jannarelly, co-founder of Jannarelly Automotive, whose first car, the Design-1, appeared on evo 276 and 279.

ItalDesign won the contract to engineer and build the show car and Jannarelly was there to talk us through the design and get feedback. (A few weeks later he was announced as Caterham’s head of design.)

On a large screen in a darkened hall, a cursor selects a file and moments later the new Caterham is on the screen, finished in green and digitally displayed in a street setting. The view changes from the front three-quarters, rotating to show the profile and now the back. Wow! My initial response is that I like the curves, grain almost individual look for each wheel. And it looks very low and muscular. It’s a very modern, almost ’60s look for a 2020s car, but I think it will stand out well in the market, as an interesting dessert in a market full of high-end main courses.

Jannarelly explains that some elements are inspired by the Saba: the mouth is the shape of the Saba’s grille, the swage lines that surround the door are to evoke the door of the Saba, and the flat rear panel refers to the simple back of the Saba. too. It doesn’t work the need These visual symptoms are not an issue because they do not affect the appearance. The front end reminds me of another car and it occurs to me a few hours later that it is a Jaguar C‑X75.

We get the chance to see it in 3D with the help of virtual reality headsets, which allow you to lean on the roof and see the simple and neat interior. I’m not sure about the concept of a two-plus-one interior that seats the (small) rear passenger in the middle, although, as in the 911, the rear seat space will probably be used for luggage (2+2 will also be an option). One big idea is the use of restored doors from the Audi TT instead of new engineering from scratch. Laishley convinced the VT Holdings board that this was the smart thing to do by taking them to the Maserati showroom near their head office and showing them the amount of detail in the MC20 frameless door seal.

By the time of our visit in March, the shape had largely been set – the first glassing and sealing was in January – but there was still a lot to be decided. We were invited to comment on the exact shade of green the show car should be finished, which interior materials should be trimmed and the choice of wheels. It all needs to be decided so ItalDesign can go ahead and build the show car to be ready in time for Goodwood.

On May 25, we returned to ItalDesign to see the car that will be revealed to the public. We were joined by engineering consultant David Twohig. He and Bob go way back, from the Nissan days. He is the ‘brain checker’ on the project, his CV including chief engineer for the Renault Zoe, Alpine A110 and Byton M-Byte. Bob considers himself one of the top five engineering consultants in the world.

We went to a different part of the ItalDesign factory this time, to the design studio to see a full-size model of the Project V. It was the first time working on its wheels, so this was a very short time. We saw face to face when entering with the smoothness of the nose and the rounded roof house, suggesting to me the 70 year Opel GT coupe.

Staying there, it’s hard to find a level. I ask Jannarelly how it compares to the Cayman. Not far, he says, ‘A little lower, a little wider, about the same height.’ A Cayman who has been under a rolling pin, then. I was not convinced by the mouth of ‘Saba’ last time. Here, standing before him, I have no issue. “Photographers will get on their knees and get a better shot but this is how people will see it,” says Jannarelly thoughtfully. I’m still a fan of the rear, especially the rear screen and bootlid area, where the rear and rear fenders come together beautifully.

The front wheels need less chamber and sit 5mm too low in the arches, says Twohig, but he’s impressed. “What ItalDesign have done in that time, and budget, is incredible,” he says.

There is a seat inside, and a dashboard and a wheel. An ItalDesign employee tries to get Jannarelly to be the first person to sit in the ItalDesign, but he is too busy talking in the back of the car. I step forward to take a closer look and am welcomed to sit inside. I don’t need to ask twice.

The seat is from a Maserati MC20 and doesn’t have a cover over the foam cushion yet, but it does. Where the front battery sits, under the footwell, you can see the floor gradually rising up against the sill. This is to get the H-point (driver’s waist) as low as possible, explains Laishley.

There are two pedals, Tiltons with floor hinges that look right. But, after snapping the seat into place, I get to drive with the car fully assembled and the wheel perfectly positioned. It’s narrower here than I expected, the window line at the very top, but not narrow. The facia looks good: simple, and somehow ’60s American. The steering wheel is as small as you want it to be in diameter, and in production it will offer height and reach adjustments. Centered, it’s fine for me. The three dials in the middle will include a clock and a drive status indicator. Usually, Sports and Sprint will be offered, the last line sacrificing for maximum performance. There will be a screen in the center but no software – your phone will provide satnav, and music through Bluetooth speakers in the doors.

‘The current height of the battery is 120mm,’ says Laishley. ‘We’ve seen a lot of future developments that say the battery height will go down to 80mm, maybe even as low as 60mm. We have packed it for 80mm.’ He sees an opportunity to differentiate the Project V offerings by offering customers different battery packs: a quick-charge and discharge pack for ultimate performance, another for longer range (c250 miles on the WLTP cycle). They haven’t found a carrier yet, but they’ll need to have decided by spring because development will need to start on systems that will require less approval. Things like anti-lock brakes, air bags and so on. It will only be what is most important. “We want the minimum in this car to satisfy, and that is to reduce weight,” says Laishley. “The project will be properly financed – it will be small, a fraction of what McLaren or Aston would spend.”

The car you see is the one that will go into production, give or take a spoiler edge here, a door mirror there. ‘We are a small company. We can’t afford the luxury of making a fashion model and then cutting it up and throwing it away after it’s in the headlines,’ says Laishley. ‘We wanted this to be as close as possible to the car we want to build in production, so there has been a lot more engineering consideration.’

There is definitely room in the market for a car like the Project V. We’ve seen announcements of £1m-plus, 2000bhp EV supercars but of course no real sports cars since the Tesla Roadster. The Alpine/Lotus EV project collapsed earlier this year, which was good news for Caterham’s prospects, although Porsche seems likely to release its EV Cayman and Boxster in 2025, which would be a concern. We suspect Porsches will be more mainstream: slightly heavier, with more everyday preferences. So it remains for Caterham to achieve its heavyweight goals, find the right powertrain partner and deliver a unique EV: one that is ‘light, simple and fun to drive’. If they manage that, we think he will be a winner.

This story was first published evo version 312.