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Electric Avenue: A Promising Future or Disaster in the Making?

If you paid close attention to the entire weekend at the second running of the Chicago Street Race, you likely caught some news that was rather quiet given conversations surrounding this particular topic in recent years.

That would be introducing electrification to NASCAR.

On July 6 in Chicago, the sport’s sanctioning body revealed the ABB NASCAR EV Prototype, its first publicly released prototype concerning electrification.

The car puts NASCAR another step closer to alternative energy when it comes to its racecars.

While the car was unveiled and previously tested by former NASCAR Cup Series driver David Ragan, there are no plans for an electric series or the car hitting the track any time soon for competition. Instead, it’s another stone on the foundation of what the sport could look like a few years or a decade down the road.

Featuring an electric powertrain that creates 1,000 kilowatts and has 1300-horsepower, the car is all-wheel drive and contains a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery.

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Before I begin critiquing this prototype, let me say two things. First, this is solely a prototype. As mentioned at the unveiling and above in this article, there are no plans for this to become a series or be featured in the Cup cars for the foreseeable future.

NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer John Probst was open about expectations moving forward when it comes to the cars’ power sources.

“There’s no plans right now to have a series that’s electric,” Probst said. “But I will also say I learned a long time ago you never say ‘never’ or ‘always,’ so that’s a good life lesson.”

Second, I am no engineer, and the electric automobile industry is something I am constantly having to learn about.

That being said, electrification has become one of the biggest controversies in both street cars and motorsports. There are still a lot of unanswered questions involving EVs, and that opens up a bigger can of worms when it comes to racing.

Let’s just look at it from a demographic standpoint. Change is natural and is something that is necessary on many fronts concerning a business. However, a radically different and sudden change from what attracted consumers from the beginning is when “change” begins crossing the line.

Part of the fan experience is hearing the roar of the engines, smelling the scent of motor fuel and burnt rubber, and taking in the gasoline-powered V8 combustion engines. The history of the engine itself holds a special place for many fans past and present, and it was something that Probst made sure to include.

“Today, obviously we have the combustion engine,” he said. “There’s a long, long road ahead for the combustion engine, be it powered from sustainable fuel or hydrogen, for that matter. That’s something else that we’re very interested in. But then there’s obviously also the electrification side of that, be it hybrid (or otherwise).

So if you’re a fan of the combustion engine, there is little to fret about. There is a realistic future for something like sustainable fuel or hydrogen when it comes to sustainability and performance.

Still, the word “electric” is seen as a threat to that intrigue, and if not done correctly, rightfully so.

The days of the car in your driveway mirroring the product that is on the track are long gone. Still, NASCAR and its OEMs continue to appeal to consumers by having the Next Gen car’s body compare to its showroom model, and at least one of the manufacturers has a vendor set up at tracks’ fan zones displaying its street models and giving information on them.

But as said before, the electric car still holds a lot of gray area, and a growing amount recently.

After the electric automobile market began taking off from 2020 to 2023, and even seeing increases to 2024, concerns are beginning to grow.

According to a report by Reuters, the percentage of those to “very likely” purchase an EV in 2024 decreased by 2% while those “overall likely” to purchase one decreased by 3% compared to 2023. Several manufacturers are cutting back production or delaying plans for EVs.

Those facts align with former Cup champion Kevin Harvick’s distaste of the project.

“I really think that the EV push came from the manufacturers and NASCAR started this project, and the EVs aren’t doing as well as what they were when this project started,” Harvick said on his Happy Hour podcast.

“Now NASCAR is stuck with this electric vehicle that they can do some demonstrations with but that’s really the only thing that excites me about it. There’s really nothing about a race car that doesn’t make noise that has any excitement for me.”

Other concerns involve pricing and charging. The average price of a low-end EV is nearly $15,000 more than a gasoline car. The average cost to replace an engine is $2,000 to $10,000 while it ranges from $4,000 to $20,000 to replace a battery.

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What does that look like involving NASCAR? While many features of the ABB Prototype are the same as the Next Gen, would prices be higher to go to electrification, something that sport has sought to cut for the teams’ benefit.

Then are endurance concerns. For EVS, a full charge ranges anywhere from 250-500 Miles. Yet, if you translate to motorsports, plus the high power the powertrain would produce, it leaves a lot of roadblocks in what we see today. That is something Pat DiMarco, Ford Performance manager of NASCAR and analytics, was adamant about.

“But can we go race, you know, for 30 minutes, 45 minutes at a short track,” DiMarco said. “Yeah. Is that a long enough race to go do something? Probably. Nitro Rallycross and some of the World Rally Cross stuff run short races to give people time to watch. Do you want to go to the Daytona 500 (with EVs)? No. A mile-and-a-half (track), you’re not gonna run for as long as you are. But you know, just seeing where the technology goes to dictate how we as OEMs in NASCAR roll it in.”

The prototype’s set-up is set up to perform well at short tracks and road courses, arguably the two track types the sport is struggling with the most in the Next Gen car aside from a few good races. However, intermediates have displayed the best races with NASCAR’s seventh generation car, and it is a track type that the sport needs to cash in on while the window is open.

All of this being said, NASCAR does deserve credit for being cautious throughout this whole process and slowly going through the development. And given some of the comments made by leaders of this project, there is still a desire to please the core fans who loves the feels and smells of the current engine.

Still, given the current landscape of EV vehicles pertaining to both the roads we travel on and in motorsports, especially American motorsports, several aspects of electrification are not plausible. Until, or if, those answers are checked off, NASCAR needs to pump the brakes on electrification.

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Entering his fifth year with Frontstretch, Luken Glover is the author of The Underdog House, shedding light on the motivation and performance of NASCAR's dark horse teams as they strive to fight to the top. Additionally, Glover reports for the site at various events, and he contributes in the video editing department.

A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a middle school math and PE teacher, as well as a basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.

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