This 429bhp EV Sports Car from China is Heading to the UK Next Year

While the electric sports car market is currently basically limited to the MG Cyberster, cars like the new EV Alpine A110 and Porsche 718 and the production version of the Audi Concept C should start to see that change over the next few years. However, another car from China looks set to beat them all to the punch: the Small Sports Car Company SC01.

Looking a bit like a cross between a Lotus Elise and a reborn Lancia Stratos, it’s already been on sale in China for a year or so under the name JMEV 01, but right-hand drive examples have just been confirmed for UK deliveries from April next year. The Small Sports Car Company has been established especially to handle UK sales.

The mere fact that the SC01 is electric is likely to be a dealbreaker for a lot of enthusiasts, never mind that it comes from an unknown company from a country that hasn’t exactly produced many enthusiast-friendly cars so far, but look beyond those facts, and there’s a lot to be intrigued by.

The SC01 has a dual-motor powertrain, developing a total of 429bhp and 413lb ft of torque. In a fairly unusual move, the driver will be able to switch on the fly from the full 429bhp all-wheel drive setup to running only on the front or rear motors, meaning that, if you really want to, you can run this compact sports car in front-wheel drive only. 

In typical EV fashion, 0-62mph is said to be dusted off in a mere 2.9 seconds, although top speed is a less supercar-aping 124mph. A 60kWh battery, meanwhile, leads to a quoted range of 311 miles, although that’s on China’s more generous CLTC test cycle: expect the final European figure to be lower.

The whole thing is built around a steel spaceframe chassis, and packs a lot of serious chassis hardware: double-wishbone pushrod suspension, adjustable shocks, magnesium alloy wheels and six-pot, 360mm front brakes (four-pots and 330mm at the rear). The whole thing has a kerbweight of 1,365kg which, while hardly a latter-day Elise, is impressively lithe for an EV, and is around the same figure Alpine’s targeting for its electric A110. 

It’s a relatively spartan affair inside, although you do get a digital driver display, Bluetooth audio, cruise control and driver and passenger airbags, along with a pair of serious-looking carbon bucket seats and – look! – a proper handbrake. Since it’s only coming to Britain in small numbers, with the Small Sports Car Company targeting low-ish three figures annually, it’s able to avoid the ADAS bings and bongs that make most modern cars a living nightmare.

Feng Xiaotong, the engineer behind the SC01, says: “My ambition is to create the kind of sports car that enthusiasts will fall in love with. I am myself such an enthusiast, and grew up admiring the great British pioneers who believed that driving should be about lightness, simplicity and the connection between driver and machine. The SC01 is my tribute to that philosophy.”

He talks a big game, and the SC01 appears to pack plenty of promise to back that up, but whether there’s a market in Britain, even a small one, for an electric sports car from an unknown Chinese brand is another matter entirely. We’ll find out when it’s on sale here next year, ahead of which full pricing and specs will be announced.