Caterham Project V electric sports car to debut in January

Caterham’s much-delayed debut EV will make its first public appearance in January at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

Plans for a lightweight all-electric sports car were first revealed by the Dartford-based brand in 2023 and it initially intended to launch Project V earlier this year. However, not much has been said about the car since then, raising fears over its future.

Now, Caterham CEO Kazuho Takahashi has confirmed that the first rolling prototype of the Project V will make its public debut at the Tokyo Auto Salon on January 9.

Takahashi is also the founder and president of VT Holdings, the Japanese retail group which took ownership of Caterham in 2021. He said the Japanese-built prototype was already being used to evaluate the car’s chassis durability, the Yamaha-sourced E-motor and the battery from Xing.

He called the Tokyo debut a significant milestone in the car’s development, noting: “This next step enables us to begin a comprehensive vehicle testing program in collaboration with our technical partners. Our objective remains unchanged: to realise our vision of a pure-electric sports car that embodies the unmistakable DNA of a Caterham.”

Caterham is famous for its tiny two-seat open-top sports cars powered by a variety of petrol engines from Ford and Suzuki, and the hard-top Project V marks a major departure for it.

Technical details of the prototype are being kept under wraps but Caterham previously said it would use a 268bhp rear-mounted motor and 55kWh battery. With a target weight of under 1.2 tonnes thanks to a carbon fibre and aluminium construction, the firm was targeting a 0-62mph time of under 4.5 seconds and a range of around 250 miles from the immersion-type battery.

Given the rapid pace of EV development, it is unclear whether those specs have remained the same or been upgraded.

While the Project V was originally slated for a mid-2025 launch it seems likely that the production version won’t arrive until 2027 at the earliest. When it arrives it is expected to challenge upcoming electric sports cars such as the Alpine A110 EV and the electrified Porsche Cayman.

As well as the Tokyo appearance of the prototype, Caterham plans to display the original Project V EV concept car at the 2026 CES show in Las Vegas on January 6 in partnership with its battery supplier Xing.