Yes, you read the title right; Caterham has just announced that aside from the planned sports car they are making with Renault (due in 2016), they have two more models in view for the near future. One is an SUV/crossover, which company CEO Tony Fernandes says “will be huge,” if they get it right, while the other is a subcompact/supermini.
Both cars, which are due after the 2016 release of the jointly-developed sports car, will rely heavily on the Renault connection, and will be specifically aimed at the Asian market, where it is hoped they will “emulate the success of the Range Rover Evoque,” according to Reuters. The plan is to get the cars to a “semi-finished” state, then ship them over to a factory where they can be completed closer to where they are to be sold.
The report says that Renault has indeed officially confirmed this, through a spokeswoman who said: “This is a project for the Caterham brand based on a Renault platform and destined for Asian markets,” adding that “there is currently no plan to extend it to Alpine.”
We are curious as to see what these two new models will look like, and what will be used to underpin them. They could be based on models already on the market, or new ones to be released in the near future. Besides, at the moment feasibility studies are reportedly being carried out, and they will determine if Caterham has a chance to enter the mainstream, and grow into much more than a builder of Sevens.
By Andrei Nedelea
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