It seems like Caterham is moving forward in their new sports car project as we have received info that it might cost around RM 167,000 and will be out in the market somewhere next year. In a joint venture with Renault Alpine, Caterham is aiming to fill what they see as a ‘significant market gap’ left by Lotus.
Focusing in appealing the professional female market, they are currently only aiming for a limited sale of 3000 units per year. The Alpine version on the other hand will share up to 70-percent of the parts of the car. Engineers working on the project are now looking into fitting either a 1.6-liter engine or a larger 1.8, having rejected a 2.0-liter design forwarded by Renault. And since Caterham is keen to link their road cars to Formula 1, there is also a possibility of the car being fitted with KERS.
“When you’ve got an owner with an airline that will fly 40 million people there next year, you’ve got a big target market”, said Caterham Technologies CEO Mike Gascoyne, referring to where Caterham is hoping to push most of their sales; Malaysia.
“If we do a good car, people will recognize it – and I’m confident that they’re going to. In a lot of parts of the world, Caterham isn’t that well known, and therefore we’re free to define the brand”, he added.
This joint-venture car will most probably be in its production form after the Geneva Motor Show in March 2014, which will be followed by the GT and Speed variants a year later. Alpine had already announced that their version will cost around RM 240,000 when launched in 2016 and will aim to rival the Porsche Boxster.
