Currently, all-electric race cars struggle to run at full speed on high-speed ovals, the type of racing that defines most of the Nascar season. Using regenerative braking, or regen, electric vehicles convert deceleration into energy that goes back into the battery, but that trick doesn’t work on tracks where drivers keep the throttle full lap after lap.
“The first place they would probably be used would be on racetracks,” said Bozi Tatarevic, a motorsport consultant and race car mechanic. “Because of the way regeneration works, it’s not really going to be effective on the big ovals because it would drain the battery quickly.”
That probably explains why Nascar debuted the EV prototype at the Chicago Street Race, a competition held on closed public roads in Grant Park. The Chicago event is a big departure from typical Nascar races, which are held on purpose-built tracks with sweeping, high-speed corners. Similar to F1The city-street race, introduced in 2023, is credited with attracting new fans to Nascar — fans who might not be opposed to the groundbreaking idea of an all-electric production car.
“I would say there was a lot of intention behind what happened in Chicago,” Marshall Pruett, a veteran racing journalist, told WIRED. “I can’t think of any other event on the Nascar calendar that would have been as fitting. If you’re trying to show that you’re thinking about some new things, that time and place were perfect.”
Secondary series
Nascar is making no commitments about the future of the EV prototype. Part of this is aimed at appeasing diehard fans, who took to social media to criticize the EV’s silence, unattractive proportions and general lack of production-car styling. Press releaseEven before delving into the car’s cutting-edge technology, he makes sure to say, “NASCAR is committed to the historic role of the combustion engine in racing.”
Still, a boxy, four-wheel-drive utility vehicle is the most common vehicle on the U.S. market, and as automakers shift to all-electric propulsion, crossovers and SUVs are typically the first to hit dealerships. That makes Nascar’s EV prototype “a fascinating piece of strategy in the North American racing market,” according to Pruett.
As automakers move toward hybrid and all-electric vehicles, major racing organizations have to figure out how to do the same to keep manufacturers involved. In a single-series racing program, that means adding unfamiliar propulsion technology to the featured cars. (The same weekend Nascar launched its EV prototype, IndyCar ran its First race with hybrid engines.) With the crossover-shaped EV prototype, Pruett says, Nascar seems to be asking itself, “What if we didn’t have to do that? What if we could continue to race what we know and love, and introduce a new championship?” This tactic isn’t new, of course; just look at F1 and Formula E.
Currently, only Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota compete in NASCAR. “With this vehicle concept, they’ve identified an area that is totally underserved,” Pruett said. “A secondary championship opens up a whole new world of possibilities for manufacturers and sponsors by courting the SUV and premium luxury manufacturers. To me, this could be the magic bullet that makes you a lot of money while calming the fears of NASCAR’s existing fan base.”
For now, Nascar is making no promises about the future of the EV prototype. A publication The official NASCAR blog insists that the battery experiment “does not bring with it any series on the horizon or any concrete plans for what electrified racing might look like through the lens of NASCAR just yet.”
But if the organizing body wants to embrace the future of electric propulsion, Pruett says, a series built around the EV prototype could be the ideal vehicle. “I could see this being a real game-changer in North American racing if Nascar wanted it to be,” Pruett said — a vehicle that didn’t have the deafening scream of gasoline.