SEAT’s Cupra division has revealed details on the e-Racer, the world’s first all-electric racing car.
The new CUPRA e-Racer, which will be presented as a world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show, reaches 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds, clocks a top speed of over 270 km/h and its engine exceeds 12,000 revs.
The new CUPRA e-Racer model was built on the chassis of the SEAT Leon Cup Racer TCR touring car. The structure was enhanced with safety elements such as an interior roll bar to make it suitable for competing.
The e-Racer is able to generate 300kW (402bhp) of continuous power, with a peak of up to 500kW (670bhp) available for short bursts.
The 65kWh lithium-ion battery pack has the same power as the ones on 9,000 mobile phones connected at the same time and it takes 40 minutes to completely recharge. At 450 kilos, it represents a third of the car’s entire weight. For this reason, “its positioning was one of the biggest challenges we had to face”, says Xavier Serra, the technical director of this project. It is so big and heavy that we had to distribute its volume throughout the lower part of the car to maintain its balance and functionality.
“One of this vehicle’s most surprising aspects has to be its power”, affirms Xavier Serra. This model is equipped with four engines, located at the rear, enabling “the CUPRA e-Racer to reach 12,000 revolutions, compared to the 6,500 of a petrol powered race car, and all with a single gear”, Serra confirms.
“The main goal was to improve aerodynamics”. For this reason, the door mirrors were replaced with mini cameras, “to make the car more dynamic”, adds Serra. The driver can see everything that is happening around him on a large screen built into the dashboard.
Serra affirms that the feeling at the wheel is different to that of a petrol powered car and the first thing that strikes you is “its acceleration”. The sound this vehicle makes is also something new: “Unlike a conventional car, this electric model makes a humming noise similar to a mosquito”.
