Caterham Seven Lightweight Electric Roadster Expected In 2023

The quintessential featherweight two-seater is going electric, but it won’t alter the company’s priorities.

caterham ev

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

May 14, 2021 at 10:08am ET

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Caterham is a British specialist manufacturer of lightweight sports cars that are a direct evolution of the original Lotus 7. Over its almost five decades of existence, the company hasn’t altered the formula much, but in the near future it may be forced to do it to keep selling cars, and as a result, it is reportedly going to launch its first EV in 2023.

The ‘EV Seven’ will be developed with the backing of Caterham’s new owner, the Japan-based VT Holdings group, according to Autocar. As with any previous model from the manufacturer, the key priority will be to keep weight down, and we’re pretty sure it will retain the overall style of the Lotus 7.

The source points out that there’s currently a discussion within the company about whether or not it should change the EV Seven’s formula, and turn it into a more comfortable and pleasant vehicle to cover longer distances in. Right now, any Caterham, even the more docile lower-powered models, aren’t the best long distance vehicles because they lack the kind of comfort and features that you’d want in a road trip vehicle.

And in making an electric car, the resulting vehicle will definitely be heavier than today’s gas-burning models. We honestly don’t know if it will be just an electric version of the Seven tha we already know, or if it will be a different, more grown up vehicle.

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When it comes to performance, it will reportedly be comparable to today’s top-of-the-range Seven, the 620R, which can sprint to sixty in 2.79 seconds, challenging all but the quickest of today’s EVs.

One challenge faced by Caterham is securing motors and batteries from a third party. Right now, even though it has built a Seven electric prototype, it has not managed to find a supplier for those all-important components. The production model is expected to be unveiled in no more than five years, but the source article points out that it could be shown in 2023 during Caterham’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

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Source: Autocar

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