FREE NEWSLETTER

The SEAT CUPRA e-Racer, the world’s first fully electric touring car, put through its paces on track

9 October 2019

The world’s first fully electric touring car – the SEAT CUPRA e-Racer – has been put through its paces on the track for the first time by official CUPRA driver, Mattias Ekström.

The 670 hp electric racer is set to compete in the new ETCR race series in 2020 and has now completed its first full-speed laps around the Montmeló Circuit in Barcelona.

With a top speed of 268 km/h (167 mph) and capable of reaching 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 3.2 seconds, the e-Racer delivers incredible performance despite its 400 kg battery pack. Aside from its batteries, the new racecar resembles existing touring car race machines – albeit with even more power delivered in near silence.

With more than 25 years of experience in different touring car, rally and karting competitions, Ekström is one of the most versatile race car drivers in the world. Now he has embarked on one of the biggest challenges of his career – participating in the development of the CUPRA e-Racer as an official driver. He is working closely with the team of engineers and technicians to fine-tune the fully electric race car and compete in the new ETCR race format in 2020.

“What I’m really looking forward to is being able to control and harness all the car’s power,” said Ekström prior to the Barcelona test. “I think the biggest challenge is getting used to driving with no gearbox and without the roar of the engine as a reference for knowing, for example, how fast to go when taking curves. However, It felt really good, especially when reaching full power coming out of the slow corners on the circuit. I really enjoyed the first lap. The second also went well, although I began to notice that I was forcing the rear tyres. I still need some time to get used to the sound of the engine; it’s much quieter than any other I’ve driven before, and I’m a very emotional driver. In addition, I have to pay close attention to energy management in each lap; that’s essential with an electric race car, almost as important as its speed.”

“I hope to be able to help the CUPRA team with my experience and the feedback from the car’s steering wheel to make it faster, but at the same time, make it more consistent and easy to drive. Once we begin competing with the CUPRA e-Racer, we have to keep our eyes on the victory and to do that we must be well prepared.

“Winning is everything to me; it’s the same with the CUPRA e-Racer as with any of the other cars I’ve competed with. So my dream is to win and be the champion. I want to put CUPRA on the podium of global motorsport.”

CUPRA e-Racer

Reaches a top speed of 268 km/h (167 mph)

Accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and from 0 to 200 km/h (124 mph) in 8.2 seconds

Its 450 kg battery is as powerful as 9,000 mobile phone batteries connected at the same time

Its four engines combined reach 12,000 revs compared to 6,500 on a petrol-powered racecar, and all with a single gear

It delivers 300 kW of continuous power, reaching peaks of 500 kW

Partners

Multimatic

Latest issue

FREE Newsletter

Stay up to date and a chance to win 1 Years Subscription*

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Latest Tweets

Stay up to date with our social world

RACE TECH magazine @RaceTechmag
19 Mar
T