- The JMEV SC01 electric sports car from China is nearing production.
- It will start at the equivalent of $31,500 in China and offer serious performance for the price.
- With the battery pack behind the occupants, it has a low driving position and mid-engined handling.
China has the widest selection of electric vehicles to buy anywhere in the world. They come in all shapes and sizes, including ground-up sports cars like the Xiaomi-backed JMEV’s SC01, which is the electric equivalent of a Lotus Exige for Mazda Miata money.
The SC01 was unveiled in 2022, and production began last month. It features a tubular space frame structure covered in a body that resembles the classic Lancia Stratos, while still managing to look modern and fresh. This is a great-looking, credible vehicle with impressive specs.
It’s marginally bigger than a Mazda Miata, with a total length of 161.8 inches, and it’s almost three inches lower than the Japanese roadster. The interior is very simple, with a single screen in front of the driver, physical controls for pretty much everything and a proper-looking sports car steering wheel.
It’s also very light for an electric vehicle, with a claimed weight of 3,009 pounds (1,365 kg), and plenty of power for its mass. With two electric motors pushing a combined 429 horsepower to the rear wheels, it reaches 62 mph (100 km/h) from a standstill in 2.9 seconds, which is as quick as the Tesla Model 3 Performance. And with one motor per driven wheel, the company should be able to pull off some fancy torque-vectoring magic.
Since it’s a lightweight and aerodynamic vehicle, its 60-kilowatt-hour NMC battery pack is enough for 323 miles (520 km) on the optimistic Chinese test cycle. But if that translates into 186 miles (300 km) of real-world range, that’s still pretty good, and it doesn’t compromise the SC01 as a vehicle that can handle longer journeys.
The battery isn’t in the floor like in the vast majority of electric vehicles but rather in a stacked configuration behind the passenger compartment, like in the original Tesla Roadster, itself based on a Lotus. This allows for a lower driving position and puts a lot of weight where the combustion engine would be in a mid-engined sports car. This should help the SC01 feel a lot like the gas cars we’re used to around the corners.
Elliott from Everything Electric Australasia got behind the wheel of a pre-production SC01 during an event organized by the manufacturer. He drove the car on a runway with a cone course meant to highlight the vehicle’s acceleration and agility. The driving is only a small part of the video, but the car appears to have great handling.
The vehicles used at the event were all pre-production and still required some tweaks—the brakes seemed a bit too sharp—but the manufacturer says it began production in April. What makes the SC01 even better is that it costs around $30,000 in China, which is a fantastic deal for something that looks like that and has the driving experience to match.
This is the kind of EV that we would have expected Lotus to make, yet the British sports car brand (now owned by Geely) has no plans to launch something akin to an electric Elise or Exige. The only EVs you can buy from Lotus these days are either Chinese-made vehicles that are too heavy, bearing little in common with the brand, apart from the badge, or are too expensive. But it’s clearly possible to make lightweight, cheap electric sports cars. We just need someone to bring one to the U.S. and European markets.
