Cash-Strapped Zenos Cars Looks for Buyer

An insolvency administrator has been appointed for Britain’s Zenos Cars Ltd. after several orders were canceled for the company's sole model, the E10 roadster.

The company, which was founded in 2012, sold its 100th car last September. But it says several buyers withdrew orders for the road-legal E10 track car in late 2016, causing a “shortfall in funding” that forced the appointment of London administrators Begbies Traynor LLP.

Zenos chief Mark Edwards is hopeful of finding a buyer for the company. He notes the carmaker is developing a soft-top convertible and fully enclosed variants of the open-top E10 called the E11 and E12, respectively.

Edwards describes the vehicles as “unrivalled affordable fun.” The mid-engine E10, which is built on an anodized aluminum backbone married to a multi-piece carbon-fiber cockpit. Prices start at just under $40,000 in the U.S., where sales began in 2015.

The faster model E10 R, which is powered by a turbocharged Ford Focus RS 2.3-liter 4-cylinder engine tuned to make 350 hp, can zip from zero to 62 mph in three seconds. The car weighs in at about 700 kg (1,540 lbs).

Edwards founded the company with Ansar Ali. Both previously worked at Group Lotus and Caterham Cars. Ali left Zenos in 2015 to join McLaren Automotive, where he heads the personalization and motorsport departments of the company’s road car business.