After the original Tesla Roadster, the market for new electric sports cars just kinda stopped. In the somewhat attainable realm, meaning not a hypercar or supercar, nobody was really looking into that niche, and it left us wondering who’d fill that void. The MG Cyberster is neat, but it also weighs as much as a medium-sized building. A two-ton sports car? I don’t think so. For a while, it looked like Porsche would be the first player here, but between setbacks in Germany and advancements in China, the forthcoming electric Porsche 718 isn’t the first truly modern reasonably attainable electric sports car. Instead, it’s something from tuner Feng Xiaotong with assistance from Xiaomi-backed EV company JMEV called the Small Sports Car SC01, and it looks spectacular.
The first thing you need to know about the Small Sports Car SC01 is that its name actually means something. At 161.7 inches long, it splits the difference between a Mazda MX-5 and a Toyota GR86, rides on a 2.9-inch shorter wheelbase than the GR86, has a roofline 2.5 inches shorter than that of an MX-5, and sits wide — 72 inches across. Add it all up, and yeah, that’s small. Then there’s the weight. Even with an electric powertrain, the Small Sports Car SC01 weighs just 3,009 pounds. That’s nearly 150 pounds less than a flat-six-powered Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0, and the way it got there is classic sports car stuff.
It starts with the chassis — not a monocoque or a fancy carbon tub, but an old-fashioned tubular spaceframe. Think Countach, Ariel Atom, and the gullwing Mercedes-Benz 300SL. It’s not fancy aluminum either, but instead chromoly steel, a time-honored tradition still used in some forms of racing today. Then there’s the battery pack, a somewhat small but still adequate 60 kWh unit that isn’t under the floor like in most EVs, but instead stacked behind the passengers. This allows for a lower driving position and while it does raise the center of gravity, a 15-inch center of gravity is three inches lower than in a Toyota GR86, and nobody’s accused that thing of being top-heavy.
Let’s turn back to the high-voltage system for a second because despite the 60 kWh battery pack, range actually seems reasonable. The SC01 claims to be good for 323 miles on China’s CLTC cycle, and while that definitely doesn’t translate to EPA figures, it’s about 50 miles short of what a long-range Volkswagen ID.4 is good for, and that’s rated at 291 miles of range on the EPA cycle. That sort of rough ballpark isn’t bad for a sports car. Plus, with dual electric motors kicking out 429 horsepower, the all-wheel-drive SC01 should scoot to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds. I get that acceleration isn’t the main selling point here, but it’s nice to know this thing’s bonkers quick.
Oh, but straight-line speed isn’t even remotely the most interesting part of the Small Sports Car SC01. It has pushrod-actuated double-wishbone suspension at all four corners and comes with adjustable dampers, so owners can dial in their preferred settings. It rolls on magnesium wheels weighing just 13-pounds each, and six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers clamping 13.8-inch discs should offer serious braking capacity. No gimmicks here, just a no-nonsense trend that even extends to the interior.
Inside the SC01, you get three knobs for your climate control, a bank of cockpit-style switches in the windshield header rail, a digital gauge cluster, six speakers, a mechanical handbrake, and that’s about it. No central infotainment screen, no ambient lighting, no bloat. All the interior money’s been spent on some nice speaker grilles, some carbon seats, and actual buttons, exactly what sports car people want.
Now it’s time to get to the best bit. In its home market of China, the Small Sports Car SC01 costs around $31,900. No, that’s not a typo. Even with a 100 percent tariff, this thing would still be competitive in America, filling a price gap between models like the Nissan Z and Chevrolet Corvette, while also giving Lotus some interesting competition. While a huge part of the SC01 coming to market is China’s bonkers investment in EVs, it does make you wonder what future electric sports cars from Western automakers might look like. Hopefully like this, although I doubt you’ll see an electric Porsche or Lotus for under $32,000 anytime soon.
Top graphic credit: Small Sports Car
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Love everything about the looks except the Hypnotoad taillights
Yeah, feels like the only misstep. Well, Dave mid-engine has a good point about the door handles.
ALL HAIL THE HYPNOTOAD! LONG LIVE THE HYPNOTOAD!
It needed a Ferrari 250GTO breadvan sort of look to make those rear lights work. I like similar rear lights on sports cars(Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo 4C, Ford GT. ect), but they aren’t used right in this one.
It’s a tired trope – but this really does look like a car out of the GTA universe. Some Stratos, some Lotus, some Rimac all joined together in a slightly disjointed way.
It’s exciting to see the crossover of weight/battery capacity getting closer to viability for sports cars. I think we aren’t quite there yet but getting closer everyday.
Consider how a sports car will be used – a jaunt from somewhere in LA to a decent distance in the canyons is easily a 100 mile trip. Lots of full throttle etc, it’ll be tight on range. Racetracks are still fully off limits. But getting closer!
The battery tech was viable in the 1990s if you were willing to use it in a small, streamlined sports car.
Datapoints to consider:
-The 1998 Zytec Lotus Elise weighed under 2,000 lbs and got roughly 80-100 miles range at highway speeds with a pack of NiCd batteries. It was not a streamlined car.
-The 2,900 lb and larger GM EV1 got a 130-150 mile “real world” range at highway speeds as well(EPA mileage was lower, but the testing methodology at the time penalized electric cars due to all of the braking when most long-distance highway travel is steady state).
-Alan Cocconi’s unaerodynamic TZero got by on 0.160 kWh/mile at 60 mph, weighing 2,400 lbs stuffed full of 1,260 lbs of lead acid batteries, getting an 80-100 mile highway range. It was a modified Piontek Sportech kit car.
Consider a hypothetical sports car like the Elise, except it had the CdA value of the 2002 Opel Eco Speedster(based on that same chassis of Elise). It would have easily gotten 150-200 miles range at 70 mph, weighing under 2,000 lbs, nearly 30 years ago with batteries 1/4 as energy dense by mass vs what we have now. In that time period, it could have been made compliant with the crash standards of the time, if only barely so.
Why are electric cars not allowed to have door handles?
So…Tesla Roadster with updated bodywork?
I’d hold on before you order one of these. I read today that the entire work force has gone on strike. They refuse to go back to work until they get a longer recess and an extra juice box.
Dammit that’s one of the best designs I’ve seen in ages, and it’s unobtanium. Crap.
Mom… Dad… Can we be friends with China yet? I really want to play with their toys…
That is a heck of an appealing car for $32K. And the lack of a massive center screen and a few actual knobs and buttons make it a gift from Glob. Simple and smooth on the outside, and simple on the inside. I can’t imagine such a thing will ever be for sale stateside any time this decade (or next) but I’d love it to see it happen. 🙂
I want to buy it just because it has 3 knob climate control.
Lots of Japanese cars have those, and they are pretty nice. You don’t have to go any farther into the Far East than that.
Oh, ni hao there.
Dammit, it’s almost perfect. It isn’t even all overwrought with dumb creases and fake vents, either
This looks good, doubt they can get a tube space frame to the market for cheap. Tube space frames are great for one offs or low production because they don’t require major tooling but they are labor intensive.
Doesn’t China have an ample pool of
sometimes involuntarycheap labor to utilize?Ooh you didn’t go there.
The 90’s called, they want their outdated generalization back. A skilled automotive factory worker in China lives better than a Wal-Mart employee, when wages are adjusted for cost-of-living.
That’s not saying much, actually. Most Walmart employees qualify for state medical insurance and Federal food assistance.
The slave labor factories are huge in China – that is not a 90’s generalization, but a nasty reality that is not getting any smaller.
OK, wow, yeah, this is pretty much what I’ve been asking for and even the price is right. Range is good enough that I wouldn’t take more in exchange for greater weight (which is only a couple hundred more than the ’86, though without the utility of that car). Well, dammit, I’m impressed.
I’m a bit skeptical on the claimed weight.
A Factory Five Coupe is about 10″ longer overall, but has the same track width, and is 2400lbs. About 400lbs of that is the Ford crate V8, so call it 2000lbs as a roller.
A typical NMC battery pack is about 160Wh/kg, so 60kWh would be 375kg or 826lbs.
That’s 2800lbs for a chassis and battery, but no motors.
Then you’ve got to budget for motor and transaxle mass, double for AWD.
Maybe they could pull off 3000lbs, but I doubt it would meet US safety standards. If they could license to a US company like Factory Five and sell it as a kit, maybe that would work.
The original Tesla roadster had an epa rating of 244 miles and had a 2877 lb weight so this is possible. I’m more skeptical of the price because this will be niche vehicle (ie low volume because people suck).
Sorry, but the McLaren F1 is absolutely not a tubular spaceframe, it is a carbon fibre monocoque
They hacked Toecutters laptop!
If I designed it, it would have been 16″ more narrow and 6″ lower, with a rounded front reminiscent of a Jaguar D-Type, Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, or Ferrari 250 GTO, with rear wheel skirts, a long aero tail or alternatively a Saab Sonnet style Kammtail, about 200 lbs less battery, and a few hundred lbs less mass from being a smaller car, targeting a sub-2,500 lb curb weight. Keep the horsepower in tact.
I’m not a fan of angular designs, but this one is not all that egregious as far as those designs go, IMO. It’s like a modern Lancia Stratos or Fiat X1/9. Not the best shape for aero, but they could have done far worse.
Color me intrigued!
What I want.
Speaking of the 300SL, and a few other sports and racing cars of that era, that had wide and high door sills, those door sills seem a good place to put the batteries. Both from a safety standpoint, because I would rather the batteries protect me then me protect the batteries in a side crash and because of lowering center of gravity and allowing a low roofline.
I have never really liked the idea of a backbone chassis or sticking the batteries in the center because I want the soft squishy bits (me) protected by the hard and heavy bits, not the other way around.
Problem with that, is in a side crash the chances of a battery rupturing and catching fire goes wayyy up.
Batteries have moved to being skateboards because it lowers the center of gravity, and allows more protection from potential pinto-ification in a crash.
It couldn’t be any worse that the vulnerability of a skateboard going over a big object in or near the road.
Also, I think that if crashworthiness were a design goal, that aspect of batteries could be greatly improved, but right now lacking regulation there’s no incentive to fix that problem. Something as simple as disconnecting the cells from each other on impact comes to mind.
Anyway, it’s not like the batteries explode into flames immediately it usually takes a few minutes, and I would much rather have the option of getting out of a car quickly before it catches fire then having my pelvis and ribs crushed.
Objects in the road puncturing up is solved as an issue by skid plates and underbody aero devices for the most part.
In a sill mounted battery, then you also have the issue of having to get out, dazed after a heavy side impact, going directly OVER the potentially thermally running away battery
Skateboard styles arent perfect, but they’ve been converged upon because there really arent many better options.
If you look at the most common platforms, they all have frame rails running along side the edges of the battery for impact protection among other reasons.
https://www.automotive-iq.com/chassis-systems/articles/top-five-global-ev-platforms
I agree that in almost all situations, the skateboard design makes more sense, just that low sports cars are a special case.
Maybe simply having a hole to accommodate the low point of the seat combined with adjustable pedals rather than an adjustable seat would be the answer. I remember Marcos and some Maseratis in the 60s did that.
Would have to come up with a better name than the obvious butt hole however.
Like you need a side crash to get a fire.
The AC Propulsion TZero had this battery placement.
I’ve been following this for a while. Its cheaper then promised by $10k. It did take more time then seems to be typical of china but not slow compared to western standards especially for a startup. It seems good for a purpose built car. I think the best thing you can do in the west is get salvage Tesla rdu and battery and a tubular frame maybe a kit car and go for it. The factory 5 818 looked promising for this but they stopped production.
Thanks for that M SV. 🙂 It is interesting that it came to market costing significantly less than originally claimed, given that the opposite is so often the case (Ford Maverick, Volvo EX30, etc…).
It’s also interesting that they managed to make such a car without resorting to all the usual scoops, ducts, fins, and spoilers that ruin so many cars, including the current-gen mid-engine Corvette. This thing looks like the ‘vette, but scaled down and without a raging Adderall habit.
What we are seeing in China is basically what the US had 100 years ago. Good pluntiful and relatively cheap off the shelf components easy to set up factories and relatively low barrier to entry. With a skilled work force that knows how to get stuff done and where failure isn’t really a mindset. Hopefully with the vacuum salesman gone Volvo can embase that as well.
The problem with chinese cars is that the coolest ones rarely go out of China.
Sad but true.
Needs a targa top and it’d be perfect!
It’s perfect as it is.
Agreed. I don’t even see any sign of a hatchback or trunk in these few pix, but I think plenty of eager drivers would be happy to have it anyway.
Every time I have dinner with car friends, we talk about our dream cars. My answer is always “I want a fully electric Miata with great steering feel.”
A couple weeks ago, at one of these dinners, someone told me about the SC01. And I’m so excited about it! I hope it comes to the US. Or I hope we can get something similar in the US.
YES YES YES
China, stepping right in with the design and innovation missing from basically every other place in the world. I’m ignoring everything else for the moment while I enjoy these pictures.
As they take over the automotive market worldwide, we’ll see more and more marvels like this one.
Mr. Young agrees with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQm2q2KbJL8
This is basically the Stratos concept from 15 years ago. Not saying it like it’s a bad thing at all.
Absolutely, first thing I saw too
https://morbotron.com/video/S07E03/PFg2j_YROeuvIRGAWgiXQJ0VeE8=.gif
I think that pretty much sums up most folks’ feelings on the matter. 🙂