It’s electrifying — drivers ready for electric racing

Not only are the cars reportedly silent, but recently, so has all the news on the new-for-2020, or maybe perhaps 2021 ‘electric touring car championship’ — the ETCR — but it’s definitely coming, and it’s likely to see the manufacturers quickly flocking to promote their latest customer-focussed road car offering, with two announcements already made, and others you can assume are coming soon.

That’s the biggest change here, this is back to business-to-customer sales, not business-to-business-style customer racing, which is what the TCR (Touring Car Racer) formula has been since its inception in 2015.

Touring car racing’s trump card on other formulae is that it shows off what’s the closest thing people can actually buy. While Formula 1 is about building a brand, and sports car racing can promote car sales for rich people, the guy on the street who pops into his local Hyundai dealer might see the poster of the i30 N TCR tearing it up in the WTCR — and that could make all the difference.

A good five years after Vauxhall had pulled out of the BTCC, I went into a Vauxhall dealership and they still had a over-the-decades highlights montage running of the marque’s past successes — and just recently, I saw a poster of a Le Mans programme from nearly 30 years ago on the wall in a Mazda dealership — it’s good thing they’re finally getting some new programmes underway.

So, here comes the ETCR — and two existing TCR manufacturers are already signed up — Hyundai and Cupra. Both are ready to promote electric versions of their road cars in the new series, which has been created by WSC Group, the creators of TCR, but also will be promoted by Eurosport Events, the commercial rights holder of the new WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup — with moves afoot to make ETCR an official FIA championship, just like Formula E, which has the single-seater rights sewn up for some years.

While TCR, and the majority of touring cars, are front-wheel drive, and are lucky to get near 400bhp, electric touring cars will be a very different beast — with the various development models pushing well past 600bhp. They will also be rear-wheel drive — much more in-line in terms of handling with a sports car, or a DTM car.

Which means it made perfect sense when Cupra confirmed its latest development driver will be Mattias Ekström, a two-time champion of the DTM, the premier German touring car series, also a one-time winner of his home Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC), and more recently, a front-runner in the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

The Cupra e-Racer — with Mattias Ekström

I think motorsport has to be a little bit smart and take care of the hardcore fans on the one side, but also not piss off the people who don’t like the sound

I spoke to Ekström recently, as Cupra launched its electric racing offensive at the Frankfurt IAA.

The Swede was quick to address the perceived concern of sound — pretty much the first fear of many a petrolhead when it comes to this new Generation Z motorsport.

“I always love technical development, but I also love the great sound of race cars,” said Ekström. “People say e-cars have no sound, but when I drove the e-Racer, I’d say I wouldn’t fancy driving it without earplugs, as you’ve certainly got to protect yourself from the sound in the car from the drivetrain.

“I think the noise will be the biggest challenge for the fans to accept, but apart from the noise, I can’t see any other negative with the sport,” he added.

“On the other side, there are many complaints in the world about motorsport — that it’s disturbing people, that’s why there’s a 92db restriction often in rallycross and circuit racing. I think motorsport has to be a little bit smart and take care of the hardcore fans on the one side, but also not piss off the people who don’t like the sound — there’s a fine line and you need to find it.

“Maybe motorsport will have a historic part, where older cars will be very loud, and cool and so-on, and then a part which is more the future, where there is less sound, but the racing will happen in cities — and to race in many cities, you need to be electric.”

However, although the electric engine will produce quite a sound, the noises that drivers are normally used to, aren’t there anymore — with the rev limiter sound no longer the signal for a gear change, nor will the gears give the control threshold for managing the speed of the car.

“The first time I drove an electric race car, it was a little bit back to the touring car feeling,” explains Ekström. “With less downforce, but then also with the electric engine, no gearbox and less sound. I knew immediately I needed more mileage to get used to it just to get the speed right.

“Usually, when you enter the corner, you have so many ways to get it right, with the gears and the feeling from the revs, so there’s more to develop myself, and possibly make some tweaks to the car to help. Power-wise, it’s quite powerful — many people were saying to get used to understeer, but most people don’t realise it’s rear-wheel drive — it might look like a TCR car, but rear-wheel drive will make a big difference to the handling.”

In terms of the technology, Ekström hopes that the racing cars won’t be flooded with all the driver aids which have often become the norm however, and hopes that the technical regulations will allow ETCR cars to be true drivers’ cars.

“Motorsport should be about the driver, and the more help systems you build in race cars, the less is demanded of the drivers,” he said.

“With electric cars, they give a little bit less feedback, so it is a new challenge, that is if you don’t add on all the help systems, so I’ll be pushing to make sure they make the cars of the championship a drivers’ car — so it’ll be about who can drive it the best. Maybe below that, you can have a junior category that can have all the ESPs, the ABSs and the traction controls or whatever.”

The 41-year-old Swede aims to be a part of the electric racing solution, and is a believer in making sure that the transition from conventional to electric racing cars is done properly.

“When you see the effort the automotive industry is spending on electric cars, you can (the change) is going to happen, it’s just a matter of how,” he said.

“I look forward to seeing where it will end up — because nobody really knows, but there will be electric cars on the road and on the race track, and I’d rather be a part of it, than sit at home on the sofa and let someone else take my vote.”

Extreme E and the STCC solution — with Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky

While ETCR is set to be the touring car formula for electric racing, closed-wheel racing is already live, or in development in other forms.

In fact, Jaguar’s iPACE eTROPHY is already entering its second season as the supporting category to the FIA Formula E Championship, with the large, SUV-based cars racing around the various street circuits with the leading single-seater category.

Formula E’s creator, Alejendro Agag, has also developed a new formula which is set for introduction in 2021, an electric rally raid-style series called Extreme E, which will visit regions most affected by climate change in order to highlight the global problem.

The series has recently confirmed a key signing in its development programme in Sébastien Ogier, the four-time FIA World Rally champion. Prior to Ogier’s announcement, through chosen tyre supplier Continental, the series also has another Swedish racer involved, who in fact is part of two completely separate electric racing developments — Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky.

The 27-year-old, a two-time winner in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC), was also leading the development of the PWR001 project, an electric racing car which also had its running gear placed within one of Cupra’s TCR cars — and similarly develops in excess of 600bhp.

The car was showcased during the STCC’s 2018 season finale at Mantorp Park, with Åhlin-Kottulinsky setting some demonstration laps with the car — with the STCC suggesting it could be two years away from going fully electric itself, in one of the national markets which is heavily pushing for the adoption of EVs.

Those plans were put on the backburner with the organisation falling into bankruptcy over the 2018–2019 off-season, with the series focussing on rebuilding itself and making extended use of the low-cost TCR regulations for now.

Having driven both PWR Racing’s electric touring car, and Extreme E’s Odyssey 21 car, Åhlin-Kottulinsky is excited about how both cars perform.

“The weight is a little more on the Extreme E compared to the PWR001, but then it’s almost the same if you count it in horsepower per kg,” said Åhlin-Kottulinsky to this writer.

“When you think about the environmental part, and the development of the car manufacturers to be able to test electric projects against each other, I think that’s great, but when it comes to the driving, it is really breathtaking when you hit the accelerator — it’s something else for sure,” she explained.

And onto that old favourite subject of sound, she’s quick to point out the potential new noise that a field of electric racing cars will deliver.

“What I really like about the PWR001 is the sound — a lot of people complain that the sound will be missing, and while it’s not the same sound of course, the pitch sounds like a jet plane, and imagine 20 cars like our car racing around — I think it’ll be a really cool sound in my opinion.”

Åhlin-Kottulinsky is a firm believer in that racing technology will allow the faster development of solutions for the road, and bring the electrification of road cars forward at a pace.

“I believe electric sports are showing you really have to do something — it’s a great arena for car manufacturers to develop their cars, make the batteries last longer, and it has to be done now.

“It will be a change, and it’s going to be a change for the whole world. They’re already building charging stations all over Sweden, and there’s lots of things that need to be done. Of course you can’t do everything at once, and just exclude consumption engines — it’s a change which can’t happen too quickly but it has to happen — I do believe it is a challenge, and people like challenges and that will bring us forward.

“I also love to race, to drive a quick car, and be part of the development, and I also believe in the changes that need to be done. It’s not just about racing for me when it comes to electric car racing, for me it has to do with the environment.”

All or nothing for some manufacturers on electric racing

Both drivers seem to have their finger on the pulse as to what the motoring industry is heading towards. Yes, many fans aren’t quite ready for electric racing yet, and in fact both types of racing could very well have its own different sets of fans.

Customer racing will for the foreseeable future certainly be about noisy petrol engines and loud rar-rar sounds, so TCR will continue in its current form for a while yet — but already we’ve seen some manufacturers completely depart the conventional racing arena, first Peugeot Sport made a similar decision last year when it pulled its rally raid and rallycross programmes, and now Volkswagen just last month confirmed it will only support electric racing, not only just in its factory programmes, but will also move to focus its customer racing programmes on electric racing as well.

“Volkswagen Motorsport broke new ground with the ID.R, and with its records around the world it demonstrated the enormous potential of electric drive,” said Dr. Frank Welsch of Volkswagen.

“Now is the time for the next step towards the future: in motorsport, Volkswagen is resolutely committing to e-mobility and will say goodbye to factory-backed commitments using internal combustion engines.”

The announcement included the shelving of the in-development Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR Mk.8 which was due for introduction next year — it remains to be seen as to whether the Volkswagen Motorsport technical team will instead be tasked with developing an ETCR car in place of their TCR challenger.

Thankfully, some manufacturers will continue with a mix of programmes — with Hyundai’s ETCR project set to sit alongside its World Rally Championship programme — with the South Korean marque covering off both the the traditional, and conventionally-powered WRC, and also the shiny new ETCR touring car series with its Veloster N ETCR race car.

“Through our successful Customer Racing division, we have spent many years honing our skills in touring car racing, which has resulted in two packages capable of competing for championships around the world,” said Thomas Schemera, executive vice president of Hyundai Motor Group.

“ETCR is the natural next step in our journey, and one that aligns perfectly to Hyundai’s global strategy for electric vehicle production.”