The Skye’s bold shape, which the company says is “driven by its capabilities”, is based on a strong ‘accent loop’ surrounding the door apertures, with a horizontal body structure running through the whole car and providing mountings for the two large doors, which are glazed below the waistline as well as above it.
Measuring 4047mm long and 1900mm wide, the Skye is of a similarly compact footprint to the Renault Clio and Dacia Sandero.
Its chassis is a rugged steel spaceframe with plenty of ground clearance and travel for its bespoke all-independent suspension, and it supports a lightweight composite body for a total heft of 1150kg – making this one of the lightest EVs on the market.
Underneath, most of its chassis componentry has been developed in-house, but the battery and electric motors are sourced from an unnamed supplier. Callum director of engineering Adam Donfrancesco said: “We’ll take motors from places we like and include that with a lot of powertrain electronics that have been created for us, including wiring looms. Anything more serious we’ll get from our trusted supply network.”
Francesco added that the influence of rally cars was key in making it enjoyable to drive. He said: “It’s not just about how fast it goes down the road, because it wants to have great steering feel, it wants to have nice suspension feel, it wants to be like a Tarmac rally car.”