The NASCAR EV crossover prototype was revealed this summer, but just like consumer interest in electric vehicles in general, the buzz surrounding the battery powered race car has cooled off some since then. That doesn’t mean the vehicle is rotting away in a garage somewhere, though. In fact, retired Ford Cup Series driver, David Ragan, recently turned laps in the electrified racer, and he was pleasantly surprised by its performance.
Ragan spoke with CBS17, a local news outlet in North Carolina, after testing the NASCAR EV race car. As a reminder, the race car was developed in a partnership with ABB and features an all-wheel-drive (AWD) drivetrain turned by three electric motors. A 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery provides the juice, and the crossover race car is capable of well over 1,000 kWh at peak power. It also utilizes regenerative braking, which makes it the perfect racer for road courses and short tracks.
“It’s been fun to drive something that’s different, that’s new, that looks different,” Ragain said. “It has a lot of technology with the way you can adjust the race car, so that was fun. Just to make laps, it was different.”
He added, “I think the nicest thing was that my ears didn’t ring a couple of days after being in a race car all day.”
Ragan’s comments touched on one of the biggest sore spots among motorsports fans regarding the NASCAR EV: the sound it will (or won’t) make. Part of the spectacle of racing has to do with the ear-shattering engine noise, and as Kevin Harvick, another retired Ford driver, put it, “There’s really nothing about a race car that doesn’t make noise that has any excitement for me.”
Even so, Ragan says that he thinks there’s a future for the NASCAR EV: “I think as the market shifts, and certainly it has shifted some, to some EV cars here in North America, I think the manufacturers will slowly get behind that and say, ‘Hey, that’s what we want to see on the racetrack.'”
As far as The Blue Oval goes, Ford Performance manager, Pat DiMarco, said he thinks an EV series is inevitable. However, contrary to DiMarco’s perspective, Ford isn’t prioritizing the electrification of its motorsports efforts.
Comments
Silence is golden!
Nascar has consistently tried to alienate old time Nascar fans. I only watch a few a year now and from seeing the stands half empty at a lot of races they’re doing a good job of alienating just about everyone. EV would be the last nail in the coffin for most. Bill is turning in his grave!