Caterham Project V to debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Caterham Project V will be unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and although the venue will be teeming with other electric vehicles vying for attention, it is Project V that marks the end of an era. Never mind it’ll be an electric Caterham - it will have front fenders and a roof, and that is a revolution.

Technically Project V is not the first electric Caterham - that title goes to the recently revealed EV Seven. It kept the traditional Caterham design but swapped the powertrain from gasoline to electrons, and in fact, the EV Seven gives us the best preview of the technology we’ll see used in Project V.

The main question everyone will be asking is the weight - Caterham is known for producing ultra-light vehicles and the EV Seven shows the world it can be done. The complete vehicle weighs just under 1,543 lb despite lugging a 51 kWh battery pack coupled to a 240 hp electric motor. That’s a 340 hp-per-tonne ratio, and the result is rather blistering 0 to 60 mph in just 4.0 seconds which is nearly as good as the 260 hp Caterham CSR.

Project V will very likely use the same battery pack featuring clever immersion cooling. This technology is widely used in cooling supercomputers, and this is the first time it finds its way to the automotive industry. A dielectric fluid is pumped through the battery cells offering unprecedented thermal management. The result is a reliable and repeatable 20-15-20 driving cycle - 20 minutes on the track, 15 minutes to recharge, and back on the track for another 20 minutes.

What powertrain can we expect to see in Project V? The fully enclosed Caterham, with windows and roof, will be significantly heavier than the standard Seven, even in an electrically-powered version. To keep the weight down, Caterham is looking at aluminum and carbon fiber, but the larger Project V will be more in the 1,874 lb zone, which is still ridiculously light for an EV. The 240 hp electric motor powering the EV Seven would still offer decent performance, but the company may opt for more power.

In the two teaser images released so far by Caterham, we can clearly see the hand of Anthony Jannarelly. Caterham’s head of design had his hand in creating the likes of Lykan Hypersport, but the one that had the most influence on Project V will be the Jannarelly Design-1 - a classic sports car with flowing lines, bulging fenders, and the cabin sitting far at the back.

Caterham Project V will be a revolution - the first Caterham with a roof and proper windows. It won’t be the first electric Caterham but will come under the Single Vehicle Approval system - meaning it will be available fully built or as a kit for self-assembly. Many people out there are already making room in their garages and selling whatever they can, because Project V won’t be cheap. The most expensive Caterham Seven is the 620 model, which retails for $75,200 and there is no chance for the Project V to be cheaper than that - but the revolution always comes at a price.

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