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.