The Caterham Project V electric sports car was revealed last year (as a design concept) with less weight than a Mazda MX-5 Miata, and now the Japanese-owned British automaker has announced that the production-bound EV will share something in common with the Lexus LFA, namely a powertrain developed in collaboration with Yamaha. In this case, however, Yamaha will not be tuning the sound and efficiency of a howling V10 but will provide an electric powertrain, as well as sharing “its technology and expertise in vehicle motion control.” The prototype model is being developed by Tokyo R&D and is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
Yamaha Knows What It’s Doing
Yamaha has plenty of experience in the field of electrification, having produced electric motors for cars in the past. One of its most notable projects was the supply of four ‘Hyper EV’ motors to the Subaru STI E-RA one-off development prototype revealed at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon. In that application, the combined output was rated at 1,073 horsepower, so Yamaha certainly knows how to create a power-dense e-motor.
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In addition, Yamaha’s expertise will be furthered by a new technical partnership with the recently formed Lola Formula E team. Speaking to British publication Autocar, Caterham CEO Bob Laishley said that the agreement with Yamaha took a long time to complete: “As you can imagine, global companies like Yamaha do not make decisions without detailed discussion and consideration; our discussions with them for Project V have been maturing for quite a while. We are very honored to be working with them and it is great news for the Caterham brand that we can make this announcement today.”
Why Caterham Chose Yamaha
Laishley went on to say that Yamaha was chosen over other potential partners for its “long-proven record of supporting OEMs with technology,” noting that its history of producing motorcycles shows that Yamaha “clearly understand[s] the need for weight optimization.”
It’s unclear if the same figures announced during the design concept’s unveiling will be maintained, but at the time, Caterham mentioned a 268-hp rear-mounted motor, 0-62 mph in less than 4.5 seconds, and a targeted WLTP-rated driving range of 249 miles. If the prototype can improve on those figures, we certainly won’t complain.
Sources:
Caterham,
Autocar
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