Look around today’s electric landscape and you’ll notice a common theme: bulk. Even the sleekest EVs carry the kind of curb weights that would make a Range Rover blush. The Kia EV6, for instance, tips the scales at more than 4,000 pounds. That’s fine if your idea of performance is crushing highway miles in near silence—but not if you believe driving should make your pulse race.
Enter Longbow, a British startup with the audacity to challenge EV gravity. Founded by former Tesla engineers Daniel Davy and Mark Tapscott—joined by a cadre of ex–auto and marine industry heavy-hitters—the company is on a mission to prove that lightness and electricity can coexist. Their first salvo? The Longbow Speedster, which the brand proudly calls the world’s first Featherweight Electric Vehicle.
Simplify, Electrify, and Add Lightness
Longbow’s design brief channels Colin Chapman’s famous maxim: “Simplify, then add lightness.” The Speedster weighs just 895 kilograms (1,973 pounds)—a number that seems plucked from an alternate EV universe. For context, that’s nearly half the weight of a Porsche Taycan.
The secret lies in an all-new aluminum chassis, a module-to-chassis battery layout, and a compact single-motor setup designed with ruthless efficiency. The goal? Stiffness, agility, and an unfiltered connection between driver and road—qualities long thought incompatible with electric propulsion.
Despite its minimalist approach—no roof, no windows, no frills—the Speedster promises real-world range: 275 miles (WLTP). And it’s no slouch, either. Longbow claims 0–62 mph in 3.5 seconds, performance that nudges against supercar territory.
Pricing starts at £84,995 ($111,732), with a slightly more practical, closed-roof Roadster version coming soon at £64,995 ($85,438).
A New Kind of Purist’s EV
Longbow isn’t trying to build another appliance with a touchscreen and a lounge chair. Its inspiration reads like a greatest hits playlist of lightweight legends: the Lotus Elise, Jaguar E-Type, even shades of the Tesla Roadster—the original one, not the perpetually delayed one Elon Musk keeps promising.
Co-founder and CEO Daniel Davy calls the Speedster “the truest illustration of our Speed of Lightness philosophy.” Judging by the reaction when Longbow unveiled its Aesthetic Dynamic Demonstrator in London, enthusiasts seem to agree. Early customers and investors got a taste of what might just be the most analog-feeling digital car yet.
Stacking the Deck
To add credibility to its lofty ambitions, Longbow has assembled an all-star advisory board: former McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt, ex-Lotus Europe chief Dan Balmer, and Michael van der Sande, who previously led Alpine and Lucid Europe. It’s the kind of lineup that suggests this is more than a vaporware startup looking for headlines.
Featherweight Philosophy
In a world where EVs are often measured in kilowatt-hours and kilograms, Longbow’s message cuts through the noise: weight is the enemy of emotion. “Weight invites complexity, blunts agility, and dulls the senses,” the company says. That’s a refreshing sentiment in an industry obsessed with bigger batteries and faster charging—often at the cost of character.
If Longbow can deliver production cars by 2026, as promised, the Speedster could land a serious punch in the niche performance EV scene. And if Tesla’s long-delayed Roadster continues to languish in the concept stage, the upstart from Britain might just steal the spotlight with something far simpler—and infinitely lighter.
Source: Longbow Motors