New EV sports car breaks cover

First official pictures of American manufacturer Detroit Electric’s British-built SP:01 sports car.

Pre-production prototypes of Detroit Electric’s long-awaited new car are currently undergoing extensive testing at the company’s production facility in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

The lightweight SP:01 will be the world’s fastest pure-electric production two-seater sports car when it goes on sale in Asia, Europe and North America.

It 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).

And if you think the design looks familiar, the SP:01 is Lotus Elise-based.

Detroit Electric is one of the oldest players in the electric vehicle sector, beginning life in 1906. However, the brand was revived in 2008 by Albert Lam, former Group CEO of the Lotus Engineering Group and Executive Director of Lotus Cars.