Is the upcoming electric Range Rover too big for your needs? Then let us present an alternative, in the form of the Callum Skye.
This is an electric, all-terrain vehicle with seating for two adults up front and two kids in the back, plus storage space for all of your outdoor adventure equipment. The Skye is the first own-brand vehicle to come from Callum, a company founded by Ian Callum, the former Jaguar and Aston Martin design boss.
Powered by a 42 kWh battery pack, the Skye has an anticipated range of 170 miles and can accelerate to 60 mph in under four seconds, its makers say. The vehicle measures 4,047 mm long and 1,900 mm wide, making it smaller than the sort of electric SUV drivers tend to buy when they’ve got offroad adventures in mind. It’s also significantly lighter than those cars too, at just 1,150 kg, or well under half that of a full-size Range Rover, let alone the upcoming electric version.
The Skye, which was revealed to the public at the Savile Row Concours in Mayfair, London on 22 May, is priced from £80,000 to £110,000, depending on specification. One optional extra we’re interested in is an ultra-fast charging battery that Callum claims can be filled in “under ten minutes.”
“Compact, capable and extremely beautiful, we’re confident that this representation of the Skye exterior will turn heads,” said Callum managing director David Fairbairn.
'We wanted our own car'
Speaking exclusively to T3 at the Savile Row Concours, Ian Callum said how, despite his company starting life five years ago as a design and engineering firm, the goal was always to make its own car.
"Our main objective was to make our own vehicle. The default vehicle was a sports car; we all felt that was a natural thing. Then we thought long and hard about it and thought we should do something quite off-beat and different, so we get noticed."
Speaking of the Skye's EV platform, Callum told T3: "Because it’s electric we can do shapes that we wouldn’t normally be able to do. If that had an internal combustion engine in it we couldn’t do that shape. Not with a 2+2 [seating layout]...It’s a fun vehicle that we wanted to create. It’s for fun and enjoyment. "
There will be two versions of the Skye, one for serious off-roading and one intended for street use, but still with off-roading in mind. Callum explained: "The other thing I love about electric cars is off-roading – I used to drive my [Jaguar] I-Pace off-road – and the torque and the control of it. [An electric drivetrain] is a perfect off-road attribute to have.
"It’s going to be a very capable off-road vehicle, but also we’ll do two versions. We’ll do a tall one for someone who seriously wants to take it mud-plugging or rock crawling, and we’ll do a road one for more urban environments, but even that will have great off-road capability."
An SUV, but not as we know it
Callum told T3 how he and his team set out to make a sports utility vehicle, but not the sort of SUV we're all familiar with. "We wanted [to make] something people can enjoy as a sports utility vehicle, but not as an SUV, as a proper sports car...I see as quite a natural urban car....it's a two-plus-two, it's a useable car but above all it's got to be fun to drive and it will be fun to drive.
The interior features a pair of sports seats up front, split by a pillar-like centre console bridge with tactile, rotary dials with integrated touchscreens for controlling the air conditioning and other key features. How the controls blend tactility with digital displays is reminiscent of those used by the Bugatti Chiron and Rimac Nevera. Callum says the dashboard was designed “with restraint and a focus on functionality,” and it houses a central touchscreen with support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Speaking earlier, Ian Callum said of the Skye's compact cabin: “In order to maximise the room, it’s essential to keep the interior forms simple. The interior design intention is incredibly disciplined; we’ve edited our vision to only include necessary elements, giving the driver and passengers everything they need while avoiding wasted space…we retain the honesty of Skye being a capable and durable lifestyle vehicle, while offering a refined cabin experience.”
The company says it intends to put the Skye into “exclusive low volume production", which will be somewhere in the region of 50 units per year, and anyone keen to buy one is invited to place an order now. Callum says details and specifications of different derivatives of Skye will be confirmed later in 2024.
