There is a reason sports car companies have been consistently building takes on the Lotus Seven since it was first introduced back in 1957. No brand has been more successful at that mission than Caterham, who has just pulled the cover off a very unique Seven concept. Known as the Caterham EV Seven, this electric track study could be the lightweight sports car of the future.
At the heart of the Caterham EV Seven’s familiar chassis sits a 51-kWh battery pack, of which 40-kWh are usable to the driver. That's a larger buffer than you might find in other EVs comes down to the fact that Caterham expects this machine to spend almost all of its time on the track, where quick runs through the charge cycle are an inevitability. The buffer helps to protect battery life over the long term with that specific high-performance use case. The battery feeds a single electric motor powering the rear wheels, producing 240 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque. While not monstrous outputs by any means, that instant torque delivery should feel quite exciting in a machine weighing in at just around 1540 pounds. For reference, the EV Seven weighs only 154 pounds more than the combustion-powered Seven 485 model.
The powertrain itself was co-developed with Swindon Powertrain, a company that provides immersion-cooled battery packs for both roadgoing and race-focused EVs. Caterham expects the EV Seven to be capable of 0-60 mph runs in the 4.0-second range. The EV also comes bolstered by hardware from the Seven 420 Cup, including a limited-slip differential and adjustable Bilstein dampers.
With such a small battery pack to work with, the team at Caterham had to get creative in the charging department. The automaker says it should only take about 15 minutes to top up the car’s battery after a 20-minute track session. Thanks to that aforementioned buffer, there’s no need to worry about degradation as a result of those rapid cycles. The EV Seven even supports regenerative braking by way of its quad-piston calipers.
Now it is important to note that Caterham doesn’t currently have plans to put the EV Seven into production. This particular car will instead serve as a testbed for the possibility of electrification in the future alongside Swindon Powertrain. That said, the automaker does have plans to unveil an entirely different electric sports car slated for production at some point later this year.
Born and raised in Metro Detroit, associate editor Lucas Bell has spent his entire life surrounded by the automotive industry. He may daily drive an aging Mustang, but his Porsche 944 and NB Miata both take up most of his free time.
