New details on electric racing series PURE ETCR

Under the name PURE ETCR, the world’s first all-electric multi-brand touring car championship has now been presented. It is due to start its first full season in 2021, with several demo events already planned for this year.

The racing series is organised by Eurosport Events, the promoter of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) and the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC), which belongs to Discovery. In a press release, the initiators are giving details of the series, first announced in early 2018 under the title ETCR. For example, the participating electric touring cars will produce 500 kW and accelerate from 0 to 100 kph in 3.2 seconds.

The racing format does not include a circuit, but several short “battles” on rallycross tracks. For this purpose, four cars each compete in parallel at the starting line. The first two runs cover eight to ten kilometres. The third round consists of a time trial, followed by the final over twelve to 15 kilometres. While eight races are planned for 2021, ten are already scheduled for 2022.

The manufacturing teams are the Seat subsidiary Cupra, Hyundai, Romeo Ferraris and, brand new, the Chinese company Lisheng Shanghai Racing. The first three have already presented corresponding touring cars – the Cupra e-Racer, the Veloster N ETCR, Alfa Romeo Giulia ETCR. As far as Lisheng Shanghai Racing is concerned, we are still waiting for the team to announce which brand they will be working with.

As early as 2020, various individual events are to provide a foretaste of the planned championship. From summer on there will be six independent events, it is said. The first one will be part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed from 9 to 12 July. Further demos are then planned in Austria, Denmark, South Korea, China and the USA.

>> With reporting by Cora Werwitzke, France.

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