Electrification is starting to have a strong presence in many forms of motorsports, from Formula One through Le Mans proto-types to French national ice racing and now the Formula E series that is exclusively for battery electric vehicles. EVs will now be added to Red Bull GRC race weekends as a distinct, standalone series, joining the Supercar and GRC Lites classes in the series’ race program. The United States Auto Club (USAC) will work in conjunction with Red Bull GRC to serve as the governing body for the new series.
Red Bull GRC has just wrapped up its sixth season, with the Supercar class now featuring four automakers: Ford, Subaru, Honda and Volkswagen.
It’s unclear which automakers will compete in the EV series, but with the European based works backed teams from Volkswagen, Audi and Peugeot publicly declaring their interest in all-electric rallycross, you can bet that automakers will use it as a place to showcase their electric technology.
VW already competes in Red Bull Global Rallycross with factory Beetle GRCs and in FIA World Rallycross with Polo RXs. Both cars squeeze around 560 HP out of their tiny engines and reach 100km/h in just 2 seconds.
“Today these cars are super-powerful, have torque from hell and use all-wheel drive,” said VW head of technology Frank Welsch. “Electric drivetrains could deliver that.”
“Red Bull Global Rallycross is pleased to add to our rallycross platform an electric series,” said Red Bull GRC CEO Colin Dyne. “The 2018 season will be a landmark year for us as we welcome electric vehicles to the grid for the first time. The electric car is one of the hottest topics in the automotive industry, and manufacturers across the globe have recognized its immense potential. We want to embrace this technology by welcoming it into our series as we continue to grow and expand.”
Would be a perfect platform to develop in-wheel motors and torque vectoring.
Stricter global emissions standards have led many automakers to downsize engines, but that trend may be about to reverse itself. Cutting displacement is a relatively straightforward way to improve fuel economy. But as regulators move toward adoption of more realistic testing procedures in the wake of the Volkswagen diesel scandal, automakers may... 
Faraday Future will unveil its first production electric car at CES in January, and last week it released a short teaser video previewing that vehicle. The short video features a camouflaged test vehicle driving around a track, but offers little information about Faraday Future's first model. Text that accompanies the video notes the quietness of... 
After unveiling its Generation EQ electric SUV concept at the 2016 Paris Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz announced some ambitious future electric-car plans. Late last week, the luxury carmaker said a production model based on the Generation EQ will be the first of no fewer than 10 electric cars it will sell under a new EQ sub-brand. That would seem to... 
Unlike other forms of transportation, the railroad industry is already fairly familiar with electric power. Electric trains that use overhead wires or an electrified third rail for power are already commonplace on world railroads. But the infrastructure demands of electric trains are considerable, limiting where it is practical to deploy them... 
Which model is missing from the new 2018 VW Atlas seven-seat SUV lineup—and what are we waiting for to replace it? What poses a huge threat to the global oil industry, in one financial firm's opinion? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, October 28, 2016... 
Today, we have details on the 2018 Volkswagen Atlas SUV, Tesla is rated poorly on reliability by Consumer Reports, and why Porsche's 800-volt charging system for electric cars could prove significant. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla was ranked 25th out of 29 car brands in the 2016 Consumer Reports reliability survey. The 2018... 
At times, those of us who cover the auto industry fall prey to stereotypes of the German auto industry. It can seem to observers that the collective belief of BMW, Daimler, and VW Group is that nothing happens in the industry until it's been done by one of their three companies—preferably all three. A recent article on electric cars in the... 
The Volkswagen diesel settlement for 2.0-liter TDI cars received final approval from a federal judge earlier this week. That means VW is now able to send out buyback offers to owners of the 475,000 affected vehicles. But some dealers aren't willing to wait to start enticing customers back into showrooms. DON'T MISS: Final VW diesel settlement... 
The future of electric cars for practical transportation relies to some degree on the future of DC fast charging, and how it develops over the next decade. As in other spheres of electrifying transport, Tesla Motors has pointed the way to one vision of the future with its expanding network of Supercharger fast-charging sites. But Tesla's network...