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This is not your typical Nasautomobile racing machine. For 75 years, American stock car racing struggled with the crashing sound of roaring, gas-guzzling V8 engines. When this prototype took the start of the Nasautomobile street race in Chicago for demonstration laps, it left the starting line amid a cloud of tire smoke, struggling for traction and without delay darting down the straight, emitting no sound other than the distant, high-pitched hum of electric motors.
It is the ABB Nascar EV prototype, with the suspicious shape of an SUV and powered by batteries. Here’s how it could shape the future of United States’ most popular racing series.
This is called stock car racing because, at the time, Nasautomobile groups used beefed-up versions of cars that can easily be found in any American showroom. Compared to the unrecognizable machines of the Indianapolis 500 or any Formula 1 race, a winner that looks like your family sedan is a brilliant and undeniable marketing tool. But today, very few Americans drive the low-slung coupes seen at Nasautomobile’s flagship events. Our country is moving toward SUVs and crossovers, an increasing percentage of which are hybrid or fully electric. .
So Nascar’s internal studies and progression team created the experience you see here. It has a bulkier silhouette than the Camaros, Mustangs and Camrys that compete in the Cup Series, the most sensible rung on Nascar’s three-tier racing ladder. In a press release, Nascar describes the shape as “a generic cross-purpose vehicle (CUV) frame made of a durable flax-based composite. “
Underneath, a 78 kWh liquid-cooled battery sends power to three motors, one that drives the front wheels and two in the rear, the same configuration found in high-performance cars from Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid, among others.
In total, the Nascar EV develops 1,300 horsepower, almost twice the power of a Cup machine. It runs faster than any gas-powered Nascar race car, but in control laps around Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, the EV prototype ran two-tenths of a moment slower than existing cars, largely due to the added weight of all our batteries.
Right now, all-electric race cars have to zip around high-speed ovals, the type of racing that defines most of the Nascar season. With regenerative braking, or regeneration, electric cars convert deceleration into energy that goes back into the battery, but this trick doesn’t work on tracks where drivers keep the accelerator pressed to the floor lap after lap.
“The first position they would probably compete in would be the racetracks,” said Bozi Tatarevic, a motorsports representative and race car mechanic. “Because of the way regeneration works, it may not be effective on large ovals because it drains the battery quickly. “
This explains why Nascar used the electric vehicle prototype at the Chicago Street Race, a festival held on closed public roads in Grant Park. The Chicago occasion marks a radical departure from typical Nascar racing, which takes place on purpose-built circuits with wide, high-speed corners. Like F1, the street race, launched in 2023, is credited with attracting new enthusiasts to Nascar, enthusiasts who probably wouldn’t object to the unconventional concept of an all-electric production car.
“I would say what happened in Chicago was very intentional,” Marshall Pruett, a veteran racing journalist, told WIRED. “I can’t think of any other occasion on the Nascar calendar that would have been so appropriate. You’re looking to sign that you’re thinking about new things, the timing and position were perfect.
Obviously, Nascar is not committed to the long-term electric vehicle prototype. Part of this is obviously aimed at appeasing die-hard fans, who have taken to social media to criticise the EV’s silence, unattractive proportions and overall lack of stock-car hubris. The racing organization’s press release, before even delving into the car’s most advanced technology, makes sure to say: “Nascar is committed to the historic role of the combustion engine in racing. »
Still, boxy, all-wheel drive utility vehicles are the most common vehicles on the U. S. market, and as automakers shift to all-electric propulsion, crossovers and SUVs are the first to hit showrooms. of exhibition. That makes the Nascar EV prototype “a desirable strategy in the North American racing market,” according to Pruett.
As automakers move toward hybrid and all-electric vehicles, major racing organizations will have to figure out how to do the same to keep brands engaged. In an exclusive series racing program, this means adding an unknown generation of propulsion to the star cars. (The same weekend that Nascar launched its electric vehicle prototype, IndyCar celebrated its first hybrid race engines. )With the crossover-shaped electric vehicle prototype, Pruett says, Nascar turns out to be asking, “What if we didn’t have to?”What if we could continue to compete with what you know and love and introduce a new championship?
Currently, only Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota participate in Nascar. “With this vehicle concept, they got to know a completely underserved area,” Pruett said. “A secondary championship opens up a whole new world of opportunities for brands and sponsors by courting premium SUVs and luxury brands. That, to me, may be the magic solution that will bring you a lot while also allaying the fears of Nascar’s existing fan base.
For now, Nascar is making no promises about the future of the electric vehicle prototype. A post on the official Nascar blog insists that the battery-powered experience “does not bring any series on the horizon or concrete plans for what electrified racing will look like. “through the lens of Nascar. “
But if the organizing framework needs to encompass the long-term electric propulsion, Pruett says, a series built around the EV prototype may be the ideal vehicle. if Nascar would look for it,” Pruett said, without the heartbreaking cry of gasoline.
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