New Callum Skye: futuristic £80k dune buggy revealed in full
Off-roader is given a ‘luxury’ interior and looks like nothing else
The new Callum Skye is available to configure now, after fresh imagery of the wild electric buggy’s interior was revealed. Its maker, named after founder and famed car designer Ian Callum, has announced that the Skye starts at £80,000 and runs up to £110,000, with two versions to pick from.
There will be ‘dynamic’ and ‘capable’ variants offered, with the latter arriving in 2025. The ‘dynamic’ version is targeted at on-road use, while the ‘capable’ edition is designed more for off-road use with its revised suspension, chunky tyres and missing doors.
We’ve caught a glimpse of the Skye’s interior previously, but these latest images give us our best look yet at Callum’s creation. There’s a 2+2 seating arrangement with Callum-branded seats up front. A blade-like centre console houses the gear selectors with two cup-holders beneath.
Up front the driver has a set of analogue dials for, plus a central touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. There’s a sporty Callum-branded steering wheel and plenty of leather sourced from Bridge of Weir throughout. Look closely and you’ll see a few things the fledgling car maker has taken from large manufacturers, including Volkswagen pedals and Volvo air vents.
Design director Ian Callum previously said of the cabin’s design: “In order to maximise the room, it’s essential to keep the interior forms simple. It uses clean yet sophisticated geometric shapes that complement the beautiful forms showcased on the exterior. With the elegant simplicity of the interior, we retain the honesty of Skye being a capable and durable lifestyle vehicle, while offering a refined cabin experience.”
In terms of exterior design, the Skye wouldn’t look out of place roving around the moon. While the car is being developed for on-road use, its appetite for the rough stuff is clear. There’s almost no overhang front or rear, chunky all-terrain tyres with plenty of space on the wheel wells for articulation and a glass section in the lower part of the doors - all of which will aid the Skye’s off-road ability.
Four main exterior colours can be picked - Blue, Sand, Grey or Pink on the ‘dynamic’, and Aqua Mist, Yellow, Red or Green for the ‘capable’. The ‘accent loop’ that goes around the doors can be chosen in a contrasting silver, orange, purple or black on the ‘dynamic’, or silver, pink, lime green or black for the ‘capable’.
The Skye is the first car to be designed and engineered entirely within Callum. Since the company’s inception in 2019, it has revealed the Callum Vanquish 25 by R-Reforged (a reimagination of the Aston Martin Vanquish) and the shooting brake variant, the Callum Vanquish VC25.
The Skye is a completely different concept, however, which Callum MD David Fairbairn says “addresses a void in the market”. While a fully electric buggy is certainly a niche idea, we’ve seen Volkswagen toy with the idea with the ID. Buggy concept in 2019, while the Meyers Manx EV buggy was unveiled in 2022.
Although the Skye has a sleek, sloping roofline, it has a 2+2 layout in what Callum calls a “comfortable, refined cabin”. It’s just a tiny bit smaller than the VW ID. Buggy, measuring 4,047mm long and 1,900mm wide.
Full technical details haven’t been revealed, although we know the Skye will get a 42kWh battery. That might not sound like much, but Callum is targeting a weight of just 1,150kg for the Skye, not to mention 50:50 weight distribution across both axles. Range is anticipated at 170 miles and while there’s no information on the electric motor’s capacity, the Skye is four-wheel drive, so a motor on each axle is expected. This will help to power the car to 62mph in under four seconds, while Callum also claims a 0-100 per cent recharge can take less than 10 minutes.
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