News about Detroit Electric, the fledgling manufacturer that revived the century-old name, comes in spikes (a lot followed by nothing at all for weeks, months) is straying further and further away from its original goals.
One of these was to build its cars in the Detroit area, in order to create local jobs and actually earn the moral right to use the name (not just the legal one) – become a source of pride for an area whose economy desperately needed one. However, that won’t be the case for the company’s first model, the SP:01, which has been officially confirmed to be entering production in the UK.
We already knew they were going to manufacture outside the US, but the first location chosen was Holland… These first Detroit Electrics will be coming out of a factory in Leamington Spa.
They won’t even sell it in the US, sticking to the European and Asian markets instead. US introduction will follow eventually, but it curiously doesn’t seem to be a priority at this point.
The manufacturer says it’s been hard at work improving the (Lotus Elise-based) SP:01 in meaningful ways – the model is currently being singed off for production by the company’s engineers.
Styling is also subject to change, and we hope they make it as refreshingly different to the Elise as Tesla did when they used it as a base for a sporty EV to kick off their business… However, judging by the first cars they showed, that could very well not be the case – additional changes to the original design will most likely be minimal.
Performance for the upcoming SP:01 will be as follows: zero to sixty in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph or 250 km/h.
The next models planned after the SP:01 are a 2+2 supercar and a sedan model. All future projects will be designed and engineered in Detroit.
Below you have the standard available colors for the car, which will cost the equivalent of around $135,000, as first announced by the manufacturer.
By Andrei Nedelea
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