The Wiesmann Project Thunderball – the firm’s first electrified product – has made its first public appearance in the UK at London’s Salon Privé.
It represents the German sports car firm’s hard-hitting comeback after several years of media silence and is the world’s first electric rear-wheel-drive convertible sports car since the original Tesla Roadster.
It was seen on the Wiesmann stand at Salon Privé sporting a tan leather interior, Alcantara steering wheel and uniquely-styled diamond cut alloys.
The brand – best known for a series of retro-styled sports cars using straight-six, V8 and V10 BMW engines – is on the comeback trail after a tumultuous period since filing for bankruptcy in 2013.
Wiesmann was acquired in 2016 by international technology firm Contec Global, whose managing director Roheen Berry now serves as the car maker’s CEO.
He hailed the new car’s arrival as “a remarkable moment in time for the Wiesmann brand and the culmination of a dream of years of design and engineering excellence.” It will be, he said, “the world’s most exciting electric sports car.”
Priced from €300,000 (£252,000), the Thunderball features a pair of motors on the rear axle delivering a combined 671bhp and 811lb ft – enough, Wiesmann says, to get the circa-1700kg roadster from 0-62mph in just 2.9sec.
The powertrain was developed in partnership with fellow German sports car maker Roding Automobile, which specialises in lightweight, carbonfibre construction and is best known for its flagship model, the Roding Roadster, which uses a BMW straight six and weighs just 950kg.
Roding also supplied the Thunderball’s 83kWh battery, which features 800V hardware for charging at speeds of up to 300kW and should be good for a range of 311 miles.
The firm is keen to emphasise how closely related, dynamically, the new EV will be to its combustion-engined forebears.