What do you do when you work at a big-time car company and have the itch to build something special, but the powers that be won’t let you? If you’re Daniel Davey (formerly of Tesla and Lucid), Mark Tapscott (formerly from Lotus and BYD), and Jenny Keisu (former CEO of electric speedboat company X Shore), you bounce and use your talents to start your own firm. That trio left existing EV brands to come together and create Longbow, a company intently focused on lightweight sports cars. Their first two models, the Speedster and the Roadster, will occupy an entirely new vehicle segment that Longbow calls the Featherweight Electric Vehicle (FEV).
If Longbow can deliver on its curb weight claims, it’ll prove obsessive attention to lightweighting that would make Gordon Murray or Colin Chapman proud; the roofless Speedster is said to weigh just 1,973 pounds. It doesn’t need a ton of power to be quick, so its single rear-mounted electric motor makes just 322 horsepower. And because it weighs less than an NA Miata, Longbow says it’ll get from zero to 62 mph in 3.5 seconds.
The Roadster is the one with the roof. It will be a little heavier than the Speedster, which likely proves that their shared chassis was designed as a convertible first since there isn’t added structural bracing to account for the Speedster’s missing roof. Still, at only 2,193 pounds, it’s lighter than an NB Miata. That extra weight adds a tenth to its zero to 62 mph time, but the roof improves aerodynamics enough to net a projected 280-mile range.
Unlike Gordon Murray, who tends to make every single piece of his cars bespoke and as state-of-the-art as possible, Longbow is taking a simpler approach. The chassis is aluminum, and its body is made from lightweight composites instead of a fancy carbon fiber monocoque with NASA-grade materials. As for the batteries and motors, they’re off the shelf. Longbow is taking inspiration from British brands like Lotus, Caterham, and Ariel, who use different engines from other manufacturers for their lightweight sports cars. The battery is made from 2170 NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt) cells, and its rear-mounted electric motor makes 326 horsepower and can come from one of a dozen different suppliers. If Longbow decides it wants to go with a different motor from a different supplier, it claims it will be able to swap it in without changing anything structural. It’s a lesson learned by Tapscott from his time at BYD.
While it’s odd that the Roadster is the one with the roof, its name is a dig at Tesla’s promised second-generation Roadster that still isn’t out yet. “A lot of customers have put deposits down for a Roadster that they can’t get,” said Davey, former Tesla and Lucid exec, according to Top Gear. “So we thought we’d be the first electric Roadster to follow the [original] Tesla Roadster.” Davey doubled down on his competition with Tesla, too. “If people want to get back their $250,000 deposit for a 2020 car and put it into a better car, they’re going to get one sooner. They’re welcome to do it. Our Roadster’s going to be on the ground first.”
Longbow seems confident that its cars will reach production. The Speedster is coming first, with only 150 handmade, UK-built examples planned and a price of $110,147. Reservations are open right now, and two special editions will be available for early reservation holders: the Luminary 1st Edition and Autograph Edition. There will only be 10 Luminary and 25 Autograph versions. The Roadster is going to be the cheaper model, starting at $84,228, and it doesn’t seem like Longbow is planning on limiting its total production. There will be Luminary and Autograph editions for early reservation holders, but many more of them, at 50 and 100 examples each, respectively.
When will we see Longbows on the road? It says prototypes will run this summer, and early customers will get their cars sometime next year. If the company’s founders are going to call out Tesla and Musk for not delivering the second-gen Roadster on time, they better be able to deliver these by next year. If they can pull it off, though, this lightweight duo could become the most exciting pair of EVs on the market.
Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com