Two-seat SC01 features ‘mid-engined’ design, with importer calling it “the car Lotus should have made”
China’s first ‘mid-engined’ sports car will reach the UK in April 2027 under the billing of “the car Lotus should have built”.
The SC-01 is built on a dedicated spaceframe chassis with the battery mounted behind the two seats and an electric motor on each axle.
Already on sale in China (where it’s part of EV maker JMEV’s line-up and named the Yichi 01) and some other global markets, including Italy, it will now be made in right-hand drive, with prices starting from around £50,000.
Mark Cotton is the founder, boss and for now, sole employee of the Small Sports Car Company. The former BMW, Bentley, McLaren and RML executive has acquired the UK import rights for the SC-01 and is close to securing three dealer partners to sell and service the car, as well as other partners to manage all distribution, financing and aftersales.
The SC-01 was created in China by Feng Xiaotong, who around a decade ago set up a firm called China Car Custom (or the Tianjin Gongjiangpai Automobile Technology Co), specialising in restoring and upgrading modern classics.
A keen enthusiast and driver, Feng spotted a gap in the market for a true electric sports car that majored on handling joy, offered the right level of performance, wasn’t too heavy and represented simple, accessible fun – hence the comparison to Lotus’s historic output.
Cotton has created the SSCC brand for the UK market and is also helping Feng work on launch plans for other right-hand-drive markets.
He has deliberately kept the company lean at the start and kept sales targets modest: around 160 cars in the first year, rising to 360 in the third year.
Cotton said the project doesn’t need much volume to be a success and “it’s easy to justify a specialist product, designed as an enthusiast driver’s car, that sells 200 to 300 units a year. Based on [my] data, that’s not a stretch.”
He first approached Feng, who has backers for his sports car at home in China (including tech giant Xiaomi), after news of the project first emerged in the media, including via an Autocar story in 2023, and plans have now evolved to the point where he is ready to go public with the car’s UK launch.
Cotton told Autocar the SC-01 isn’t an EV all about acceleration and going fast in a straight line but rather one with “an emotional connection and a soul”, comparing it to the Lotus Elise in the way it drives.
Its spaceframe chassis is bespoke, as are all the major components that are sourced in China, where the car is also built.
The 60kWh battery pack, which nets a range of 311 miles on the Chinese test cycle, isn’t a structural part of the car. Instead it’s designed to be removable and easy to service.
It sits between the axles for that mid-engined feel and low down for a centre of gravity that is claimed to be lower than that of a Porsche 911.
The suspension is bespoke and manually adjustable, while the driver can switch between the two motors powering the car for either front- or rear-wheel drive, or combine them for four-wheel drive.
The motors are identical and produce combined peaks of 429bhp and 413lb ft of torque to give a 0-62mph time of 2.9sec – as quick as the Ferrari 296 GTB.
The SC-01 weighs 1380kg, some 500kg more than an Elise but about in line with what the upcoming Alpine A110 EV is expected to weigh.
Crucial to minimising weight is a simple interior that features only a small driver’s display (so no central touchscreen), drive selector buttons and a manual handbrake.
It shuns all ADAS too, so will be sold here under either Individual Vehicle Approval or Small Series Type Approval regulations, depending on the volume that is reached each year.
“It’s a great sports car first before it’s an EV,” said Cotton. “When I first heard about the project, I knew it was right for the UK, and Feng’s passion for getting the car here is strong.”
Opinion: Can they make small big?
Low-volume sports cars from unknown brands, shed-based or otherwise, are nothing new on these pages. Many have been great to drive but even so have fallen down commercially. A good car doesn’t always make for good business when the volumes are this small.
What the SSCC SC-01 has over the likes of upcoming rivals, including the Caterham Project V and Longbow Roadster, is that it already exists and is in production; it’s not some prototype that’s a minimum of two years away.
The question, then, becomes simply: will SSCC work as a brand and a commercial operation here?
Boss Mark Cotton said that in China the SC-01 is bringing younger buyers into the sports car space, attracting an audience that wouldn’t go near traditional sports cars like the Lotus Elise. Maybe that will play out elsewhere too.
Cotton has credibility, with a background in bringing new brands and models to market – most notably at McLaren and Bentley.
While the projected numbers seem small, in year three it’s still a car a day at 360. Maserati sold just 255 cars in the UK in the first half of this year. Yes, the Italian brand should be embarrassed to have sold fewer than half as many cars as Lotus, but that shows how tough it can be to shift metal.
Then there’s the name: SC-01 isn’t catchy enough and sounds like the engineering team were left to handle that part of the project as well.
Cotton seems open to making a change before it reaches showrooms, which is promising, as a car like this needs a name you will remember. Dragon, perhaps?
