http://blog.caranddriver.com/detroit-el ... sh-accent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Steve Siler wrote:Twenty-one months have passed since startup EV maker (or re-startup, more accurately) Detroit Electric first provided photos and information about its SP:01 electric sports car, which is based on the featherweight Lotus Elise that we no longer get here. Since then, we have been skeptical about it actually making it to production. But now the car seems to be closer to reality, with the company releasing new photos showing the final body shape (not surprisingly adopting the Elise’s fastback roadster design) and releasing additional information about its powertrain and interior.
The company also announced that production will commence within the next few months—not in Detroit as was first hoped but in Leamington Spa, near Birmingham, England, a 145-mile drive from the Lotus factory.
Since we first saw photos of the car in prototype form, some design tweaks have been made, including the aforementioned adoption of the fastback body, as well as the addition of a small rear spoiler and a rear diffuser. We’re also getting a first look at the interior, which appears to be luxuriously equipped with leather or suede upholstery, ambient lighting, embroidered floor mats, plus optional leather panels on the dash, doorsills, and door panels. The SP:10 follows the lead of the Tesla Model S by replacing secondary controls with a vertically oriented touchscreen, appropriately sized for the space (8.4 inches) and utilizing an open-source Android operating system.
It’s a looker, to be sure. And it should be a swift runner, too, if the electric motor, which we now know to make 285 horsepower, delivers on Detroit Electric’s promise of a zero-to-60-mph acceleration time of 3.7 seconds on its way to a stratospheric (for an electric car) top speed of 155 mph. The standard transmission is a four-speed manual (yes, on an electric car), while single-speed or “twin-speed” automatics will be optional. Two lithium-ion batteries are said to store enough energy to take the car 180 miles—or at least that was the claim when the car was first announced in 2013; we shall see if the needle has moved since.
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We’re hoping that the Detroit auto show will provide us a chance to learn more particulars about the SP:01, such as its U.S. arrival date and pricing, which was last reported to start at $135,000. That’s BMW i8 money, so this Tesla Roadster redux had better be something.
