NASCAR’s Electric SUV Prototype Has 1341 HP, AWD

NASCAR has unveiled a prototype version of an electric SUV—officially. Precious little information was shared in February, when fans snapped various shots of the naked-looking prototype ahead of the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, in Los Angeles. The debut was rescheduled because of rain, and the prototype finally hit the track for a demonstration in Chicago, for last weekend’s street race, accompanied by proper fanfare and some of the information we’ve been waiting to hear.

Underneath the curvaceous bodywork, reminiscent of the Ford Mach-E and the Chevrolet Blazer EV, is the modified chassis of a Next Gen stocker. The steering, suspension, brakes, and wheels, says NASCAR, are all based on those of the Cup Series car, though here the brakes are integrated into a regenerative system that can charge the battery. The pack is a 78-kWh, liquid-cooled unit. The electric prototype has three motors, two in the back and one at the front. They’re made by STARD, an Austrian racing team at the forefront of EV race car development, and together capable of producing nearly 1000 kW of power, or 1341 horsepower.

These STARD UHP Six-Phase motors will ring a bell for fans of Ford Performance: The brand used the same ones in the SuperTruck it built for this year’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb and in the SuperVan it built for the year prior. The presence of the motors also suggests that Ford had a heavy hand in the development of the electric NASCAR prototype, though it is supposedly a product of all three of the manufacturers that currently participate in the series: Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet.

The ABB NASCAR EV Prototype is the product of NASCAR’s Research and Development Center and was built by the same people who worked on the Garage 56 Camaro that raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. NASCAR says that the electric car will be best suited to road courses and short ovals—no surprise there.

The electric SUV prototype is a joint effort between NASCAR and ABB. The latter is a multinational corporation that dates to a merger in 1988 between ASEA and BCC—the former a Swedish industrial company that built the first entirely commercial status plant for high-voltage DC transmission and nine of Sweden’s 12 nuclear powerplants. The latter was a Swiss company that spent much of its early days developing electrical motors for trains and building steam turbines for industrial use. Today, ABB is the title sponsor of the 2024 FIA Formula E championship. The conglomerate is also a founding partner of NASCAR Impact, an umbrella platform launched spring of last year. Its chief goal is to reduce NASCAR’s carbon footprint to zero by 2035.

Perhaps aware of the shock value of an all-wheel drive EV, specifically one with decidedly un-race-car-like proportions, NASCAR decided a brief smoke show was in order for the fans watching the festivities in Chicago. With driver David Ragan behind the wheel, the car lit up all four tires in a blistering, if uncharacteristically quiet for NASCAR, launch on the street circuit. For a corner of motorsports that has typically taken an evolutionary path rather than a revolutionary one, this concept represents a big potential change in NASCAR’s future, and something of a curious step with other forms of motorsport pursuing sustainable fuel alternatives over full-on electric powertrains. So, NASCAR fans: Would you watch a series of 1300-hp EV-powered racers with Blazer, Mach-E, and RAV-4 silhouettes?

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