Seat Presents An Inside Look At The Cupra e-Racer

The Cupra e-Racer under multimedia x-ray

Cupra, the new Seat‘s brand, takes us on a journey deep inside the e-Racer, which is the world’s first fully electric competition touring car, unveiled earlier this year. The first races are planned for 2020 under new ETCR Racing format.

The 3D animation and multimedia x-ray presents four-motor beast with 500 kW of power, which can do 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds and would be one of the fastest EV on the race track. The motors and inverters are placed between rear wheels:

CUPRA e-Racer

The battery consist 6,072 cylindrical cells and is big enough for 40 km (25 miles) of driving at full performances:

Cupra e-Racer

– A 450 kg battery, the core element: It accounts for a third of the vehicle’s total weight and is a challenge when developing this model, as explained by the head of engineering at CUPRA, Xavier Serra: “The battery determines the entire design and position of the remaining elements”. It is located “as low as possible so that the centre of gravity is closer to the ground and enhances the car’s dynamics”, he points out. This part is made up of 23 panels with a total of 6,072 battery cells, generating the same power as 9,000 mobile phones connected at the same time.

– No energy is lost; it is transformed: This car features an energy recovery system that harnesses energy from braking and decelerating. The steering wheel of the CUPRA e-Racer has a display panel that the driver and engineers can monitor and transfer a full range of vehicle performance data in real time while driving for efficient energy management.

– Temperature control: On the track, the technical team and the driver himself must know how to manage the temperature of the components. This car is equipped with a bespoke cooling system in the radiator, which provides cooling in around 20 minutes. “There are three independent cooling circuits, as each element has different temperature limits:  the battery threshold is 60 °C, the inverters 90 °C, and the engines 120 °C”, points out Xavier Serra.

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Cupra e-Racer specs

• four electric motors (300 kW continuous and 500 kW peak) but rear-wheel drive only
• 0-62 mph (100 km/h) in 3.2 seconds
• 0-125 mph (200 km/h) in 8.2 seconds
• 168 mph (270 km/h) top speed
• range at full performances: 40 km (25 miles)
• 40 minute recharge
• 6,072 battery cells
• battery pack weight: 450 kg
• total weight: 1575 kg

Here is video from tests at the race track:

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