Longbow reveals test mule of 895kg Speedster EV

Prototype hits the road just six months after being penned by designer, writes Steve Cropley

- Steve Cropley

British EV startup Longbow has revealed what it calls a “full-speed driving prototype” of its incoming ultralight electric sports car — and claims to have created it in about a third the time the same operation would have taken a normal car company.

The £84,995 (3,603,24-baht) Speedster, due to reach its first customers at the end of next year, was taken from 2D design sketches to running prototype in just six months — by a firm that was only incorporated in 2023.

A coupé version, called the Roadster, will be built in much higher volume than the Speedster’s initial 150 units and should reach the market about a year after, at a lower price of £64,995.

Orders for both are being taken now, and the first year’s run of Speedsters is understood already to have been allocated.

Longbow’s founders, Daniel Davey and Mark Tapscott, both of whom have previous connections with the EV pioneers Tesla and Lucid, call their design the world’s first FEV (for ‘featherweight electric vehicle’) that embodies what they call “the speed of lightness”

It will weigh just 895kg at the kerb, even with a 52kWh battery, inverter and rear-mounted electric motor fitted. Power has yet to be finalised but it will be “at least 200kW” or 270bhp, the pair told Autocar.

Road test trials are just about to begin, but in production the Speedster is calculated to have a 0-62mph acceleration time of just 3.5sec and a WLTP range of 275 miles.