The launch of a new independent British sports car always carries with it a certain amount of cynicism and the unveiling of the Lightening electric supercar at the British Motor Show was no exception.
The problem is certainly not its styling, so often a stumbling block for hand-built sports cars. No, the Lightening wins the award for the best-looking ‘cottage industry’ car since TVR shut shop and not just in a ‘looks great across a dimly-lit, crowded room’ sort of way; you actually wouldn’t mind waking up next to it.
Performance isn’t an issue either – nobody’s going to argue with the equivalent of 700bhp channelled through a revolutionary four-wheel-drive system that incorporates traction control and regenerative braking. They even claim that after a 10-minute charge it’ll do 200 miles. My ‘phone can’t even receive a call after 10 minutes!
And herein lies the problem – it all sounds too good to be true. Do a bit more digging into the press pack and you find that fateful line “on securing the appropriate investment or partner, development, testing and manufacture will take place.”
The batteries alone will surely eat up most of that time being, as they are, incredibly complex, nanotechnology items and, at the risk of adding to the cynicism, if they’re so good, why aren’t GM, Honda and the rest of the big boys using them?
It would be a shame if the Lightening comes to nought – you’ve got to admire the ambition and on looks along the car deserves to see the light of day but on this occasion, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Now go to our British Motor Show page or else! >>>