Electric vehicles are gradually becoming a practical alternative for regular petrol and diesel-powered cars but there has never really been a substitute for two-seater sports cars. In the past, there was the Tesla roadster which was based on the Lotus Elise; however, it was pulled out of the market in 2012. Since then there hasn’t been a two-seater electric sports car, until now.
Picking up where the Tesla Roadster left off, the new SP:01 aims to take the game forward in the all-electric sports car category. Designed and developed by Detroit Electric, the new SP:01 is about to go in to production after it was first shown as a prototype vehicle at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show.
Detroit Electric has announced the exterior design and specs for the SP:01. Pre-production prototypes are currently undergoing testing at the firm’s production facility in Leamington Spa, UK, ahead of the start of production in the next couple of months.
Like the Tesla Roadster, the SP:01 is also built around the same aluminium chassis of the Lotus Elise but with carbon fibre bodywork. Set to be made in extremely limited numbers, it will be the world’s fastest production electric sports car when it goes on sale in Asia, Europe and North America, starting this year.
The SP:01 features a 285 HP / 210 kW electric motor, carbon fibre body panels and manual transmission as standard. An optional single-speed and twin-speed automatic transmission are also available. The SP:01 promises to deliver blistering acceleration, reaching 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds (0-100 km/h in 3.9 seconds) and an impressive top speed of 155 mph (249 km/h).
