Caterham’s Project V prototype will be powered by… Yamaha

If you’d told us 10 years ago that Yamaha was building a motor for Caterham, we probably would’ve thought ‘hmm, the Seven would do alright with a bike engine’. Or 'hmm, the Seven would do really alright with a massive V10'. Alas, times have changed.

Caterham, as we know, is now dipping its toe in the EV water with an electric sportscar, and efforts to push the Project V along the development path towards production are beginning to ramp up.

That means the concept car’s numbers - 268bhp, a 55kWh battery, 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds and a kerbweight of 1,190kg - need a little more substance. And so Caterham has turned to Yamaha for said substance.

Why? Yamaha makes all manner of things and not just bike engines or mad V10s for Japanese supercars, you see, and it will now provide Caterham with an ‘e-axle’ as well as technology and expertise in ‘vehicle motion control’. Which sounds like a broad remit.

Naturally it’s been given the brief of making the powertrain as light and as compact as possible (because Caterham) while matching ‘the expectations of what an all-new Caterham should be’. So riotously loud and bone-shakingly vibratious?

We keep saying ‘Caterham’ of course, but development of the prototype is being conducted by engineering house TOKYO R&D, with the Project V, er, project being overseen by brand owner VT Holdings, which is also based in Japan.

Call us crazy, but a lightweight e-sportscar with a hint of Japanese flavour… doesn’t sound like the worst thing? More as we have it.