Caterham’s Iconic Lightweight Roadster The Seven Goes Electric With New Prototype

Many may or may not know the Caterham Seven as it’s an iconic lightweight roadster that has spurned many variations but the latest incarnation has now gone full electric and is more powerful than the petrol-powered model.

Helping Caterham with the development is Swindon Powertrain, which provides the electric motor and its auxiliary components. The peak power of the system is 240 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of instantaneous torque. The 0-60 miles per hour acceleration takes approximately 4.0 seconds but there’s no word about the vehicle’s top speed.

Caterham envisions the electric Seven as a track toy, which should be capable of 20-minute drive sessions followed by 15-minute charging sessions and another 20 minutes of track fun. You’d probably be tempted to say a BEV isn’t ideal for track use but Caterham says the concept weighs just around 154 pounds (70 kilograms) more than the Seven 485. The total vehicle mass is just under 1,543 lbs (700 kg).

“We do not have plans to put EV Seven into production at this stage – it’s a test bed to see how well an EV powertrain works for our customer’s specific use cases,” said Bob Laishley CEO of Caterham. “We’re doing this project with our eyes wide open so that we can learn how to deliver the specific Caterham vehicle attributes necessary for a Seven: lightweight, simple, and fun to drive. We will bring this to market at the right time when the future generation of battery technology allows it, and that’s why now is the time for us to trial the concept.”

• Also See: Caterham Set To Unveil A Radical Electric Sports Car In A Few Years