In a market saturated with ever-heavier EVs, a brand new British marque is betting huge on going gentle. Enter Longbow Motors – the world’s first devoted electrical sports activities automobile producer within the UK and the creator of a wholly new automotive section: Featherweight Electrical Automobiles (FEVs). With its Speedster and Roadster fashions, Longbow isn’t simply electrifying the light-weight sports activities automobile system – it’s redefining it.
“We’ve got misplaced one thing necessary,” says Daniel Davey, Longbow’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Many fashionable ‘sportscars’ tip the scales at 1,500kg and BEVs can attain nearly double that. There’s a want for a extra driver-oriented, featherweight, electrical sportscar.”
At a time when the typical electrical automobile weighs 30% greater than its inner combustion counterpart – because of the bulk of batteries and bolstered chassis – Longbow’s fashions are shockingly lean. The Speedster ideas the scales at simply 895kg, whereas the Roadster weighs a modest 995kg. For context, that’s lighter than a Mazda MX-5 and over 500kg lower than a Tesla Mannequin 3 (which weighs 1,611kg per the US EPA). Each Longbow automobiles dash from 0-62mph in below 3.6 seconds.
Future legacy
Longbow’s story is one in every of engineering pedigree and purist philosophy. Based by Davey, Jenny Keisu, and Mark Tapscott – veterans of Tesla, Lucid Motors, BYD, and the marine EV startup X Shore – the corporate brings collectively many years of automotive and tech innovation.
The ethos of Longbow is encapsulated in its Latin motto: Celeritas Levitas, or “the velocity of lightness.” For the founders, it’s greater than branding, it’s a mission. The staff has drawn inspiration from legends just like the Lotus Elise and Jaguar E-Kind, crafting electrical automobiles that prioritize suggestions, engagement, and a return to tactile driving.
“Longbow is the following chapter in that story,” explains Tapscott. “British engineering and automotive craftsmanship have a protracted historical past of creating light-weight sportscars with nice industrial and aggressive success.”
The primary Longbow to hit the street would be the Speedster – a minimalist open-top machine with no roof, no windscreen, and no apologies. Weighing in at 895kg and producing 322bhp from a 240kW electrical motor, it accelerates from 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds and delivers a WLTP-estimated vary of 275 miles. Pricing begins at £84,995, and simply 150 automobiles can be hand-built.
Shortly after comes the Roadster, a fixed-roof coupe geared toward a barely broader viewers. At 995kg and three.6 seconds to 62mph, it sacrifices not one of the efficiency. Its 280-mile vary and extra accessible £64,995 worth level put it in rivalry with top-spec Caterhams, Porsche’s mid-range Boxsters, and even undercuts the Lotus Emira by £20,000.
Critically, each fashions are constructed on the identical bespoke aluminum chassis, formed for rigidity and minimal weight. “It’s purposeful in proportion, formed for velocity and honed for suggestions to ship a driving expertise that feels alive in your arms,” states Longbow’s press launch.
Fats-free engineering
To maintain weight and prices in examine, Longbow has shunned carbon fiber for sustainably-produced composite panels wrapped round an aluminum construction. The place many startups may waste assets reinventing each element, Longbow takes a extra pragmatic method: “Fairly than creating proprietary parts, Longbow sources vital parts like batteries, motors, and brakes from established suppliers,” the corporate states.
Energy comes from 2170-format nickel-cadmium cylindrical battery cells, a alternative that provides confirmed efficiency and a excessive power density. Whereas Longbow hasn’t disclosed actual capability (estimated to be within the 50-60kWh vary primarily based on vary and weight), they’ve inbuilt modularity: the structure is swappable and future-ready. “The automobiles can accommodate completely different battery codecs, together with each cylindrical cells and pouch cells,” the corporate notes, serving to to future-proof the platform in opposition to evolving chemistries and provide disruptions.
The software program stack that connects all of it is Longbow’s personal, and the corporate is actively exploring a dual-motor model for future variants – probably opening the door to AWD efficiency.
Longbow is agency in its perception that sports activities automobiles ought to serve the motive force, not distract them. You gained’t discover synthetic engine sounds or pretend gearshifts right here. As a substitute, the cockpit is tactile and timeless, targeted on necessities and craftsmanship. “It represents driving ‘prefer it used to really feel,’” the corporate states. Count on leather-based, metallic, and minimal screens – that is driving distilled.
“Speedster and Roadster are hanging, gentle, nimble, balanced, and engineered for an unparalleled driving expertise,” the founders say. It’s not simply rhetoric – the dedication to a sub-1,000kg EV required a whole rethink of each element. Lighter autos additionally imply smaller motors and batteries, which lowers value and will increase effectivity – each financially and environmentally.
Made in Britain
Manufacturing will happen within the UK, leveraging the nation’s wealthy community of efficiency automobile suppliers and engineering expertise. From Formulation E powertrain companions to motorsport-grade chassis consultants, Longbow’s chosen provide chain is one in every of proximity and precision. The corporate has but to substantiate a manufacturing unit location however website choice and manufacturing planning are properly underway, with plans for a working prototype this summer time and buyer deliveries scheduled for 2026.
“There are just a few locations on this planet the place you possibly can hand construct a sportscar,” explains Tapscott. “Within the UK, British engineering and automotive craftsmanship have a protracted historical past of creating light-weight sportscars with nice industrial and aggressive success. Longbow is the following chapter in that story, harnessing those self same concepts to create the best driver’s automobiles of the trendy period.”
The founders consider their expertise offers them a novel benefit in avoiding the pitfalls which have claimed so many British sports activities automobile makers. “Primary, as an organization, we and our different co-founder Jenny have performed this earlier than,” says Davey. “[We’ve been at] Tesla, Lucid, Polestar, Chinese language producers. There should not many individuals on the planet which have performed it as soon as – we’ve [launched EV makers] 4 or 5 instances throughout a number of corporations and continents. So we all know the best way to construct the corporate facet of it.”
The Featherweight Electrical Car (FEV) class is totally new. Whereas most electrical sports activities automobiles right this moment – such because the Rimac Nevera or Lotus Evija – concentrate on excessive horsepower and futuristic styling, Longbow is carving out area for one thing completely different: simplicity, affordability (comparatively), and accessibility for driving purists.
Acciording to Bloomberg, EV adoption projected to achieve 60% of recent automobile gross sales globally by 2030, and rising curiosity in sustainable efficiency, Longbow’s area of interest could quickly grow to be a motion. With reservations now open, the approaching months will reveal whether or not this audacious entry into the electrical sports activities automobile market can succeed the place so many British automotive startups have failed. What’s sure is that the business can be watching carefully to see if Longbow’s featherweight method marks the start of a brand new chapter in sports activities automobile evolution.
“We’re reviving an icon,” concludes Davey. “The light-weight British sportscar.”
