Working Caterham Project V Coming To Tokyo Auto Salon

It’s been a while since we heard anything of the Caterham Project V, the all-electric coupe the tiny company has been working on a few years, and given the current market ambivalence around electric sports cars, it wouldn’t have surprised us all that much if it had been quietly put on the back burner.

That’s not the case, though, as we’re just a few weeks from seeing a working prototype of what, if it makes production, will be only the second road car from Caterham ever to deviate from the basic Seven recipe, after the rare 21 of the 1990s.

The first functioning example will make an appearance on 9 January at the Tokyo Auto Salon, the rebellious younger sibling of the Tokyo Motor Show. Why Tokyo? It’s actually just about the most logical place for it – Caterham is a Japanese-owned company these days, and the Project V’s arguably as much an Asian project as a British one: the powertrain is being developed by Yamaha, the battery pack by Taiwanese company Xing Mobility, and the prototype has been assembled by Tokyo R&D, an R&D firm in… well, you can guess the rest.

The prototype that’ll be going on display is currently being used to refine that Yamaha powertrain, an e-axle setup that packages the motor, power inverters and gearbox into one single, compact unit integrated into the rear axle.

It’s undergoing chassis durability work too, and being used to refine the battery system, which is cooled by immersion in a dielectric liquid. A Google search of what exactly a ‘dielectric liquid’ is returns lots of sciency terms our tiny brains can’t begin to comprehend, but apparently this approach “offers unmatched thermal stability for exceptional energy density, safety and performance.” Sounds good.

The Project V still hasn’t been fully confirmed for production, but Caterham says it’ll continue testing it throughout 2026 “as it targets full scale production.” The only real question mark is whether there’ll be much of a market for an EV like this, especially one with Caterham badges, but if we have faith in any company to nail it, it’s the one that’s spent over 50 years crafting the Seven into one of the finest driver’s machines around.