The Longbow project is certainly an interesting one. Announced last year, it promised an entirely new category of car: the Featherweight Electric Vehicle. The stats were good, the prices competitive, the looks distinctive. Production was due to kick off in 2026, and that’s still on track. Certainly one to keep a look out for next year.
Now the Longbow team has been bolstered by the addition of a new Board of Advisors. Not typically the most newsworthy of updates, but they’ve recruited quite the team. The advisors are Mike Flewitt, former McLaren CEO and with a recent stint at BAC, Dan Balmer - who was Lotus Europe CEO, plus boasts Aston Martin experience - and Michael van der Sande, a name you might remember from his time as Alpine MD and Jaguar Land Rover’s SVO division.
It’s a strong trio, for sure; even in advisory roles rather than full-time positions, the learnings they can bring from some of the best known sports car makers should be invaluable. The three of them know what it takes to bring small series, driver focused machines to market, and that’s of course exactly what Longbow is trying to achieve with its Roadster and Speedster. There’s some EV nous as well, with van der Sande’s year as Lucid’s Europe MD as well as time with Tesla. While we’ve all seen our fair share of start-up British sports cars fail to deliver on promises, the fact that these three have seen some potential is encouraging. Or they know that being involved in an advisory capacity means they aren’t too closely associated. We’ll lean on the optimistic side and say a sub-tonne, driver focused EV that looks as good as the Longbow does seems like a great avenue for the wealth of sports car building expertise in the UK.
Mark Tapscott, COO at Longbow, commented: “At Longbow, we live by a few simple principles, and central to these is: we can never have too much good advice. Whether it's engineering details, company strategy, customer community building and even design suggestions, we listen. Combining strength in our conviction to move at the Speed of Lightness with the humility to learn from the incredible expert experience around us is how we'll build the best outcome for the road ahead.” With all three onboard now, it’s full steam ahead for the Longbow sports cars. Bring on 2026.
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