Caterham reveals plans for all-new two-seat EV

Light, fun, electric sports car will sit alongside the Seven, which has a long ICE future 

Caterham Cars is  working on an ambitious, three-pronged plan for the post-2030 electrification era. This involves building the muchloved petrol Seven for at least another decade, while using that time to develop a same shape Seven EV and launch an all-new aerodynamic electric roadster that will draw on the traditional Caterham values of lightness, performance, simplicity and agility.

Outlining the plan exclusively to Autocar, Caterham CEO Bob Laishley drew a picture of business that's currently booming: the firm last year built 500 cars and sold 670, the 'extras' adding to a waiting list that now runs to about a year. In the short term, he wants to expand the company's traditional annual output of 500 to cover those extra cars "at least", and has recently repurposed Caterham's former Crawley used car centre for the assembly of additional cars, alongside the main production line in Dartford, Kent. Laishley believes current regulations will allow existing ICE-powered cars, with logical developments, to be built until 2034. Even if the UK's

proposed 2030 ban on diesel and petrol cars holds, he predicts that expanding export demand will keep production healthy. Hugely significant here is the US's recent 'Show and Display' amendment to car registration laws that allows "traditional or technically significant" imports - such as Sevens to be sold in the US and to be driven up to 2500 miles a year.