This educational project aims to design and build an Open-Source Sports Electric Vehicle (OSSEV®). It is a father (Rob Collingridge) and son (Ethan Collingridge) collaboration but, we working with many other people and organisations.

Anyone can get involved via the Open-Source Sports Electric Vehicle (OSSEV) Facebook group. We will be working with suppliers, sponsors, charities, volunteers and other organisations to develop the OSSEV® and we will also be raising awareness of mental health issues.

The goal is to have our test platform MX-5e running on electricity in Spring 2024 and the first OSSEV® prototype running towards the end of 2024.

We have four main goals with this project:

  1. To help Ethan through his mental health and anxiety challenges so that he can return to full-time employment. Ethan will learn new skills and gain confidence whilst working on this project.
  2. To learn about designing and building electric vehicles. Whilst we have experience of restoring and building ICE cars, this is a whole new technology area for us.
  3. To electrify a Mazda MX-5 so that we can use it to test ideas and components on a real EV.
  4. To collaboratively develop an open-source electric sports car so that anyone can make/buy the parts, kits of parts, a partially built or a fully complete vehicle from a range of suppliers. The Open-Source Sports Electric Vehicle (OSSEV) Facebook group is the forum to collaborate on the design.

An open-source sports EV makes a lot of sense. Not only will it be cheaper to develop and build but, it will also be cheap to maintain, repair, upgrade and insure as there will be plenty of spare parts available at very reasonable prices.

To progress this project quickly we aim to fund it using the GoFundMe website. You can read more about how the funding will be used.

Please share the link https://ossev.info or donate.

We are planning to produce an electric, convertible, rear-wheel drive sports car with two seats that is involving and great fun to drive, gorgeous to look at and also practical to own and use.

Our benchmarks are the Lotus Elise S1 for handling and the Mazda MX-5 for practicality. As a low-volume car it will have to pass the UK IVA test to legally be allowed on the road.

The main design targets for the base model are:

  1. It costs less than £20,000 to build.
  2. It weighs less than 1000kg.
  3. A range >200 miles.
  4. A 0-60mph time of less than 5.0 seconds.
  5. A top speed of over 100mph.
  6. It comfortably accommodates drivers from 5'2" (157cm) to 6'4" (193cm).

There will many options, including choice of body colour and styling details, a larger battery pack giving greater range, an off-the-shelf infotainment system, etc. These are covered in much more detail in the design section.