There is also bio-fuel, which various companies, including Porsche is investing heavily in. It isn't going to save the ICE en masse, but it will quite possibly throw a lifeline to classics, and small volume players like Caterham?.

But TBH, I quite fancy the idea of an electric Caterham!.

Given that Caterham don't manufacture their own engines anyway then presumably the problem is to source a hybrid power train small and light enough to meet their dynamic brief.

The base engines Caterham use are very cheap to buy, its the modifications that are done to meet the demands of customers that cost all the money.

Take the 2 litre Zetec in my Caterham. I paid about £800 in 2008 for the unit brand new still on a Ford crate, Same place still has them, about £920 now. But that is just the start. I stripped off the bits that I did not need and sold them on e-bay, got about £300 making the base engine £500. Since I already had all the other bits from a previous install that was all it cost me but to start from scratch you must be looking at another £3000 which gives you a 175 bhp engine. Want more power, start thinking big numbers even if you do the work yourself its going to cost you another £10000 to get 250 bhp bringing the total to close on £14000. Add in a professional engine builder and your guess is as good as mine.

Morgan pulled the plug (no pun intended) on the electric 3 wheeler due to battery supply issues. The Caterham would need similar batteries so lets hope they are available.