NASCAR is exploring many angles of electric cars and other technologies
Car manufactures pump buckets of money into the NASCAR industry. Right now, the engine product specifically doesn’t resemble what’s being pushed in the consumer markert.
V8 engines are rare at the dealership. Even more rare is the lack of some form of electrification as most news cars are new fitted with some type of hybrid electric charging system to help increase gas millage.
By 2035, the US government has a plan to end the purchase of gas powered automobiles, entirely. That’s not far away.
Formula 1 introduced the KERS technology over a decade ago. That technology was developed for racing and quickly spread to the dealer lots.
Since, they’ve created Formula E, an all-electric racing series that features boost lanes and loads of unique elements to any other series. Cars can be placed into attack mode, seeing a boost in power from using a certain lane. There’s a lot more in play than your traditional race.
NASCAR is exploring everything. In regards to a second series, they’ve confirmed that they are looking into developing an electric only racing series that would stand next to the NASCAR Cup Series on race weekends.
NASCAR released their Next Gen car for 2022. That drastically brought the chassis itself back into today’s technology on the showrooms. However, the engine package remains the same. But, NASCAR is looking at possible electrification of the Cup Series engines as well…
Steve O’Donnell details electric NASCAR interest
“We are exploring some opportunities around an exhibition series in that [electric] space,” NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell stated.
“As everyone knows, electric is a huge push among all our OEM partners and potentially new OEM partners. So, it’s important for us to explore that space. There’s a lot of interest from our current partners to be part of that.”
Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota remain the only three auto manufactures in the sport. By including electric, manufactures like American owner Tesla now have a reason to join the sport.
“We look at NASCAR as an ideal place for all people. If you went to a NASCAR event weekend, you could see all types of technologies you wanted, throughout a race weekend.”
Fan reaction?
NASCAR fans go to the track for the sights as well as the sounds. Electric cars have less noise and in most cases, an extremely different sound. However, NASCAR is already checking the temperature of fans on the electric topic.
O’Donnell confirmed, “So, we’ll take a look at an electric series.”
“We’ll see what our fans think. Our fans are actually very open, which is surprising, to some, about that technology and seeing how that would work inside a NASCAR portfolio.”
“Then, there’s a lot of other technologies to explore too. Hydrogen, a lot of new things we could look at. But, for us, the race has to be entertaining. Our fans, they love noise. They love the sound, the feel of racing.”
“So, if we’re going to get into electric space, I promise you it will be entertaining. It will be something that fits into our portfolio. Something our fans will be proud of.”
