A year on from its reveal, the Caterham Project V now has a powertrain supplier in the form of Yamaha. The Japanese firm will provide its “latest cutting-edge e-axle” to the lightweight electric sports car, which is expected to be completed by mid-2025.
Yamaha joins a very Japanese-centric development programme for the Project V, which is no surprise given that Caterham is now owned by VT Holdings, a major Japanese automotive dealer. The car is being developed by Tokyo R&D, a specialist engineering house that has produced major OEM-commissioned prototypes and production vehicles.
The Project V will not only receive Yamaha’s lightweight compact electric powertrain but also its “technology and expertise in vehicle motion control,” said Caterham. No technical details have been released just yet, but for the record, last year’s concept was tipped to utilise a 272 PS (200 kW) rear motor and have a kerb weight of 1,190 kg (over double that of the company’s famed Seven sports car in Super Seven 1600 guise).
Incidentally, that power figure is identical to each of the four electric motors Yamaha is supplying for the Subaru STI E-RA, a near-future motorsport study that is aimed at setting a lap time of 6 minutes 40 seconds on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Those four motors provide all-wheel drive and a total system output of 1,088 PS (800 kW), drawing power from a 60 kWh battery.
As for the Project V, that car is expected to be juiced by a 55 kWh battery that provides a range of 400 km on the WLTP cycle. It will also utilise a carbon fibre and aluminium construction to save weight and feature a novel 2+1-seat layout for increased rear seat room as an alternative to a conventional 2+2.
Yamaha itself is no stranger to sports car development, having partnered with Toyota on both the 2000GT and the Lexus LFA. It has even shown off a few sports concepts of its own, its latest being the Sports Ride Concept displayed at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show (now the Japan Mobility Show). That car, a small two-seater built on F1 design legend Gordon Murray’s iStream production process, was expected to be powered by the company’s 998 cc four-cylinder engine from its YZR-R1 superbike.
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