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Last weekend was very busy in the race calendar. In the UK, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone was further proof that Red Bull no longer has the fastest car in F1. In Ohio, IndyCar successfully founded its new hybrid formula. on supercapacitors. And just a few Great Lakes away, NASCAR held its second street race in Chicago, opting this time to also show off its all-electric inventory car prototype.
To do this, it has partnered with the generation company ABB, which manufactures charging devices and is also the sponsor of Formula E. “The goal of the collaboration between NASCAR, ABB in the U. S. and NASCAR is overcoming the barriers of electrification generation. , from electric vehicle racing to long-haul transportation and facility operations,” said Ralph Donati, executive vice president of ABB.
The NASCAR EV prototype starts with a modified Next Gen chassis, which was introduced to the game in 2022. It’s a no-brainer: in addition to the other things expected in a race car chassis, such as an intelligent stiffness ratio. Due to its weight, it is also designed to safely protect the driver from the consequences of the very high-speed injuries that occur in the series. Therefore, there are no concerns about the 78 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery.
This package provides three electric motors: one for the front axle and one for each rear wheel. And it’s far more powerful than any V8-powered production vehicle, with 1,341 hp (1,000 kW) available at full power. They’re offered through STARD, an Austrian motorsports company that also helped Ford develop the quirky Supervan 4, Supervan 4. 2, and most recently its SuperTruck EV demonstrators.
Like those machines, this electric demonstrator also turns out a bit out of a race car. It is more noticeable in profile, where the EV prototype is seen to be a few inches taller than a next-generation car, pointing to a crossover shape. body.
These frame panels are the first thing we see translated from a prototype to festival cars. NASCAR recently ditched sheet steel for its frame, but for this car, it opted to make the frame with linen-based composites from a company called Bcomp.
People have been looking for sustainable opportunities for carbon fibre for some time now – we came across hemp frame panels on the Eco Racing Radical in the late 2000s. Plant-based compounds are heavier than man-made carbon compounds, but as durability becomes an important factor in the look of modern racing series, this becomes a trade-off value, as Bcomp claims that its compounds have an 85% lower carbon footprint than a classic compound of similar stiffness.
“Incorporating sustainable inventions into the design process helps lay the foundation for sustainability in our industry and supports progress toward the company’s sustainability goals and objectives,” said Brandon Thomas, vice president of vehicle design at Bcomp.
Don’t expect to see an all-electric NASCAR race anytime soon. While a battery-electric vehicle like the prototype you see here would work well on street and street circuits, as well as short ovals, as all three offer opportunities to regenerate. power when braking, no one knows how to run electric cars on the superhighways.
Rather, the car is a way for the game to gauge fan interest and advertise NASCAR IMPACT, the game’s new sustainability initiative. The plan is for ABB to remove NASCAR cars from its operations, which are guilty of a much larger carbon footprint than cars on the track. The company wants to reduce its carbon footprint to 0 by 2035, but a more immediate goal is to use only renewable electric energy at its racetracks and facilities by 2028, as well as build charging stations on-site.
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