Caterham Project V concept to debut at Festival of Speed

The small teasers we have seen so far confirm that this Project V will be quite the departure fromt the existing Caterham Seven range. At first glance, it looks like a normal car, with a body and everything.

It's built by Italdesign, and looks in silhouette to be somewhat similar a Lotus Elise or Alfa Romeo 4C. It’s clear Project V is intended to be a small, presumably lightweight ‘mid-engine’ sportscar. We of course put mid-engine in quotation marks, given it’s electric, so any bulky lump of weight you might find behind the cabin will be a battery bank, rather than an engine. 

Obviously being Caterham and electric, our concern is over mass. Lightweight and EV are usually mutually exclusive, but Caterham insists Project V will honour the family values. Targets are a mere 70kg increase in weight over the Seven 485, with weight distribution within two per cent of it. 

This isn’t the first time Caterham has entertained the possibility of a ‘proper car’. Early on in development of the Alpine A110, Caterham was in as a partner and was set to get its own production car out of it. Sadly that deal fell through and cash-strapped Caterham were left with nothing but a prototype, so we do wonder if learnings from that project are being utilised here. We also can’t help but wonder of Project V and indeed, whatever production car it spawns (if at all), will be aimed squarely at the French featherweight.

Nor indeed is it the first time we've heard of Caterham looking at Electric power, with the EV Seven prototype only just revealed last month. Project V is due to be unveiled in around a month, so we’ll find out more then. For now, what do you think of a Caterham with a roof and an all-electric powertrain?