By: Chris Harris

It sounds like the build-up to some terrible joke. That’s right you take a Lotus Elise chassis, replace the engine and fuel tank with an electric motor and a battery and add around 450kg to the overall curb weight.

Despite the company’s current difficulties, for any car enthusiast this Roadster is one of the most significant cars ever made. Not on the back of its claimed efficiency or the precise details of its performance (which is stunning), but because this is the first time we’ve seen the previously contradictory messages of performance and cleanliness combined in a single vehicle.

Funny how the subjective always outweighs the objective: for all the numbers, my abiding memory of this car is just how hilariously fast it was.