As part of its new partnership with ABB, a leader in electrification and automation, NASCAR introduced its ABB NASCAR EV Prototype at the site of this weekend’s Chicago Street Race.
ABB becomes the first official partner of the “NASCAR Impact” initiative, the sanctioning body’s platform to advance sustainability across electrification.
As part of the partnership, ABB will help NASCAR achieve public sustainability targets around electrification and electric vehicle charging.
At the core of “NASCAR impact” is NASCAR’s plan to reduce its own carbon footprint to zero across its core operations by 2035. In addition, it plans to source 100-percent renewable electricity at its owned race tracks and facilities by 2028, expand waste diversion efforts, and on-site EV charging stations.
The future of EV in NASCAR
The multi-year research and development effort that went into the construction of the EV prototype race car is illustrative of NASCAR’s commitment to showcasing new electrification technologies.
Its creation does not mean NASCAR is about to abandon the historic role of the combustion engine in its racing, however.
“Today, obviously, we have the combustion engine. There’s a long, long road ahead for the combustion engine, be it powered from sustainable fuel or hydrogen for that matter,” said John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president and chief racing development officer.
“Then there’s also the electrification side of that via hybrid. They’re on hybrids (in IMSA). Today we have battery electric.
ABB NASCAR EV Prototype
Photo by: NASCAR Media
“As you know, we look towards net zero operating emissions for us by 2035, so at this point, I’m not sitting here saying we’re going to announce a series. That’s not what this is about.”
Instead, Probst said, the EV prototype is about “exploring what our future could be.”
“We built this car. We put it on track. That is our point, is to learn,” he said. “We’ll have a story tell as we learn. And we’ll be in the driver’s seat wherever our future takes us.
“If you look out across the landscape, one thing that’s for certain is that change is accelerating all around us.”
About the car
The prototype was developed in collaboration with NASCAR’s OEM partners – Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota – and was built by the same engineers responsible for the creation of the current Next Gen car used in the Cup Series and the “Garage…
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