Opinion: Electric cars are not the death of motorsport

It’s a scary time for motorsport enthusiasts with electric vehicles becoming more popular. But EVs are not the end of racing, they’re actually a new beginning.

More often than not, I’m guilty of scrolling through the comments of any EV (electric vehicle) performance-related content that comes up on my social media feed. 

It’s a common thread for traditional enthusiasts to beat up on any sort of electric-related motorsports. Whether it be the lack of soul or the lack of sound, people who are into internal combustion engines (ICE) simply aren’t interested in electric car racing.

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It’s certainly not the fairest way to look at things, but it does come down to what interests you about cars. 

As a lifelong motorsport fan, racer, and car enthusiast, I too was scared at the prospect of my ICE cars being taken away or becoming too expensive to run due to rising fuel costs and the death of any new petrol- or diesel-engine cars by 2035, as per the new European regulations.  But I’ve come to accept it’s not all that bad. In some aspects, at least, electric vehicles have one over traditional ICE cars. 

Take a look at one of the most famous motorsport events in the world, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and it’s quite easy to see why electric vehicles have and advantage over their ICE counterparts. 

The Pikes Peak course is located in Colorado Springs, USA, and spans 20km with an average grade of 7.2 percent. It used to be a gravel-only event, then a hybrid of gravel and tarmac, before becoming the fully paved course it is today. 

The main issue with Pikes Peak has always been that the finish line is a whopping 14,115 feet (4302 metres) above sea level (for context, Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, stands just 2228 metres tall). This causes issues for internal combustion engines, as they need oxygen to work in ideal conditions. The higher you go, the less oxygen in the air, the more an ICE will struggle to make power.

Competitors have attempted to offset these conditions by bolting huge turbos into their cars, using adjustable engine maps that change the fueling when they get to higher altitudes, or just attempting to pump out as much horsepower as possible so that when the car eventually does begin to run out of puff, there’s still plenty of power in reserve to compensate for the thinner air. 

When the road was first fully paved, 10-time world rally champion, Sebastien Loeb, went out and obliterated the unlimited class record in a twin-turbo V6 Peugeot 208 T16. However, in 2018, Volkswagen showed up with its stunning ID. R electric race car and broke the eight-minute barrier (7:57.148), a time that would have been unthinkable when the event started over 100 years ago.

While ICE cars struggled when they reached higher altitudes, electric motors thrived because they don’t rely on a mixture of fuel and air to run at their peak. It’s seriously exciting to see the absolute speed this VW spaceship is carrying through the course.

Of course, I can’t ignore perhaps the most controversial use of EVs in motorsports: drag racing. Since drag racing became a fully fledged motorsport, the use of the biggest and loudest, most powerful V8 engines has been a staple. 

ICE engines will always have a lag as an explosion happens in an engine. While purpose-built drag cars, like those of the Top Fuel class, have gotten this down to a tee with engine timing and the use of nitromethane fuel, which uses a high oxygen ratio to burn, electric cars have the advantage of instant full torque to the wheels. 

Electric technology for drag racing still has a long way to go. The fastest Top Fuel drag time in the world down the quarter mile is currently set at 3.659 seconds and 543.96km/h, while the fastest EV drag time is a relatively pedestrian 7.480s and 325.087km/h. It’s nowhere near, but it’s one of the first attempts at getting up there with drag cars. 

The sport of Rallycross is yet another extremely exciting prospect for electric vehicles. Short straights, tight courses, and fast getaways are all perfectly aligned with the performance dynamics of an electric car. 

Rallycross is one of the motorsports that properly uses electric vehicles. They’ve made it exciting to watch, and the battles are insanely close. And the races are short enough that they don’t need to make any silly pitstops to change batteries or recharge the car. 

It’s not all about ‘green racing’ and ‘saving the planet’ if that’s not up your alley. The fastest race cars in the world use a hybrid powerplant to maximise power and efficiency.

Le Mans Prototype (LMP) cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship use a hybrid system to get the best of both worlds, the fuel savings and torque of an electric motor mixed with the gearing and top speed of an ICE. When not running under the rules of the race series, and left to the whims of the engineers, Porsche’s 919 Hybrid Le Mans racer went out and absolutely smashed the lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

It comes down to the fact that if it makes their cars more efficient and faster, of course they’re going to exploit the technology. Go watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans and tell me that’s not exciting.

On the flip side, one motorsport that does not do electric vehicles well is Formula E. There are so many gimmicks that make it difficult to watch as a lifelong motorsport fan. 

Akin to Mario Kart, Formula E encourages drivers to come off the racing line to use “attack mode,” which gives them a boost for an overtake. It’s interesting the first few times you watch it, but the more you see, the sillier it gets. When it debuted in 2014, drivers needed to make pit-stops to change cars during the race. But battery technology has improved and from the fifth year of Formula E, drivers no longer need to swap cars to finish the race.

The series’ lack of racetracks in lieu of street courses also makes it a bit of a soulless watch, although Formula E is moving away from racing exclusively on the latter. This year’s calendar features just two street races, Monaco and Tokyo.

However, I will admit that Formula E is more entertaining to watch than Formula One currently. If you haven’t watched a Formula E race, then I recommend you brush up on a highlights reel to see some real wheel-to-wheel action. As the age-old saying goes, “more overtakes in one lap than an entire season of Formula One.”

The acceptance of EVs means a wider acceptance of motorsports in more accessible areas, which is good for everyone.

I’ll miss the noise, feeling and excitement of an ICE race car, but I just want to go fast and have fun. By all means, I’m not saying let’s ditch ICE racing altogether, but be vocal about what you’d like to see from motorsport so we can keep this tradition of going as fast as possible together. It seems like we don’t have much of a choice anymore.

Just give it a red-hot crack, enjoy the racing for the competition and broaden your horizons. We need to allow the technology to develop and become more exciting, just take a look at the mobile phone you had 20 years ago and look at the one in your hands today, night and day. It’s not the end of the world. 

So, what do you think? Can electric cars flourish in the once high-octane world of motor racing? Or are they a sideshow distraction? Let us know in the comments below.

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