In a market saturated with ever-heavier EVs, a brand new British marque is betting massive on going gentle. Enter Longbow Motors – the world’s first devoted electrical sports activities automotive 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 automotive system – it’s redefining it.
“We now have misplaced one thing essential,” says Daniel Davey, Longbow’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Many fashionable ‘sportscars’ tip the scales at 1,500kg and BEVs can attain virtually double that. There’s a want for a extra driver-oriented, featherweight, electrical sportscar.”
At a time when the typical electrical automotive weighs 30% greater than its inside combustion counterpart – as a result of bulk of batteries and strengthened 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 vehicles dash from 0-62mph in beneath 3.6 seconds.
Future legacy
Longbow’s story is one in all 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 pace of lightness.” For the founders, it’s greater than branding, it’s a mission. The workforce has drawn inspiration from legends just like the Lotus Elise and Jaguar E-Sort, crafting electrical vehicles that prioritize suggestions, engagement, and a return to tactile driving.
“Longbow is the subsequent chapter in that story,” explains Tapscott. “British engineering and automotive craftsmanship have an extended historical past of creating light-weight sportscars with nice business and aggressive success.”
The primary Longbow to hit the highway 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 vehicles shall 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 value 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 pace 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 verify, Longbow has shunned carbon fiber for sustainably-produced composite panels wrapped round an aluminum construction. The place many startups would possibly waste sources reinventing each part, Longbow takes a extra pragmatic method: “Reasonably than creating proprietary elements, Longbow sources important parts like batteries, motors, and brakes from established suppliers,” the corporate states.
Energy comes from 2170-format nickel-cadmium cylindrical battery cells, a selection that provides confirmed efficiency and a excessive vitality density. Whereas Longbow hasn’t disclosed actual capability (estimated to be within the 50-60kWh vary primarily based on vary and weight), they’ve in-built modularity: the structure is swappable and future-ready. “The vehicles can accommodate totally 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 vehicles ought to serve the driving force, not distract them. You received’t discover synthetic engine sounds or pretend gearshifts right here. As a substitute, the cockpit is tactile and timeless, centered 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 putting, 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 an entire rethink of each part. Lighter autos additionally imply smaller motors and batteries, which lowers price 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 automotive suppliers and engineering expertise. From Method E powertrain companions to motorsport-grade chassis consultants, Longbow’s chosen provide chain is one in all 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 operating prototype this summer season and buyer deliveries scheduled for 2026.
“There are only some locations on the earth the place you may hand construct a sportscar,” explains Tapscott. “Within the UK, British engineering and automotive craftsmanship have an extended historical past of creating light-weight sportscars with nice business and aggressive success. Longbow is the subsequent chapter in that story, harnessing those self same concepts to create the best driver’s vehicles of the fashionable period.”
The founders imagine their expertise offers them a novel benefit in avoiding the pitfalls which have claimed so many British sports activities automotive makers. “Primary, as an organization, we and our different co-founder Jenny have executed 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 executed it as soon as – we’ve [launched EV makers] 4 or 5 occasions throughout a number of corporations and continents. So we all know learn how to construct the corporate aspect of it.”
The Featherweight Electrical Automobile (FEV) class is totally new. Whereas most electrical sports activities vehicles in the present day – such because the Rimac Nevera or Lotus Evija – deal with excessive horsepower and futuristic styling, Longbow is carving out area for one thing totally different: simplicity, affordability (comparatively), and accessibility for driving purists.
Acciording to Bloomberg, EV adoption projected to achieve 60% of recent automotive gross sales globally by 2030, and rising curiosity in sustainable efficiency, Longbow’s area of interest could quickly turn out to be a motion. With reservations now open, the approaching months will reveal whether or not this audacious entry into the electrical sports activities automotive market can succeed the place so many British automotive startups have failed. What’s sure is that the business shall be watching intently to see if Longbow’s featherweight method marks the start of a brand new chapter in sports activities automotive evolution.
“We’re reviving an icon,” concludes Davey. “The light-weight British sportscar.”
