The FIA World Rallycross Championship (WRX) has started its first all-electric season in Hell, Norway. Johan Kristoffersson won the season opener at the traditional Norwegian race track last weekend.
The World Automobile Federation had already announced the start of the electric WRX for 2021. However, when the decision was made in 2019, the Corona pandemic and its effects could not yet be foreseen.
In 2019, FIA initially announced that the increasingly popular WRX was to become fully electric in the long term but that in 2021 the first electric cars will compete in the WRX with the previous supercars with combustion engines. The FIA spoke of a “gradual introduction” of electric cars in the WRX, whereby from 2021, there was to be still a mixture between electric cars and combustion engines for “at least one year”. Now the World Rallycross has gone to Hell and switched to full electric power.
The multiple postponements also meant that in Hell, Norway, there were now only eight electric cars on the grid instead of the planned twelve. The drives for the electric WRX come from Kreisel Electric and produce 500 kW. This means that the WRX cars can accelerate to 100 km/h faster than a Formula 1 racing car – but of course, the top speed is considerably lower.
The Swede Johan Kristoffersson, who won the historic first WRX round, is not an unknown name in electric motorsport: as reported, Kristoffersson won the first season of Extreme E with Molly Taylor for the Rosberg X Racing team.
The fact that Kristoffersson’s rallycross racing car bore a VW logo has nothing to do with technology from the German carmaker. The drives are standard components, the Volkswagen RX1e is a pure sponsoring project. Other vehicles were on the road in the look of a Peugeot 208 or with a neutral body without design references to a car manufacturer.
moveelectric.com, topcarnews.net, fiaworldrallycross.com, Krostoffersson win: fiaworldrallycross.com
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
I have read and accepted the Privacy Policy *
Subscribe to “electrive today” by entering your email below. Our newsletter is published every workday – short, to the point, and free of charge. Made in Germany!
electrive.com is a news service for decision makers in the electric mobility industry. The industry-facing website builds on the email briefing we publish every workday since 2013. Our mail-out and online service cover a wide range of relevant stories and developments in electric transport across Europe and beyond.