Former Tesla Engineers Release an Ultralight Battery-Powered Speedster (5 photos)
Former Tesla engineers Daniel Davey and Mark Tapscott announced a sports car project called the Longbow back in March. While only renderings were shown back then, the developers have now unveiled the first live demo of the Longbow Speedster electric car and clarified some specifications. The Speedster is extremely lightweight, even by gasoline-powered standards, and will cost at least £84,995. 
The developers have conceived a new class of vehicle for the Longbow Speedster, calling it a Featherweight Electric Vehicle (FEV). The Speedster is claimed to weigh only 895 kilograms including its battery, yet it has a range of over 440 kilometers on a single charge. The Speedster's powertrain output has not yet been specified, but its performance figures are known: the electric car accelerates to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds.
The two-seater is based on a custom-designed aluminum chassis, with the battery integrated into the body structure. The Speedster's creators claim to have been inspired by iconic sports cars like the Lotus Elise and Jaguar E-Type, embracing renowned engineer Colin Chapman's approach to maximizing simplification and lightness.
Longbow unveiled the first Speedster demonstrator to prospective customers in London, promising to begin delivering production cars to them in 2026. A closed-roof electric car version, called the Roadster, will be released later, possibly in honor of Tesla's years-long project of the same name. It will be £20,000 cheaper than the Speedster.
In addition to Tesla engineers, the Longbow project includes former Lucid and Alpine executives, and the Longbow supervisory board includes former McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt and former Lotus Europe CEO Dan Ballmer. 
