The CUPRA e-Racer was the world's first fully electric touring car. CUPRA became the benchmark in the Electric Touring Car World Cup and won the drivers‘ and manufacturers’ titles in 2021 and 2022, the two years it was held... (read more)
Active period: 2021-2022
Electric
Layout: 4 motors on rear axle
Battery: 65 kWh
Max. power: 500 kW (680 HP)
Max. torque: 960 Nm
Top speed: 272 km/h
Type: Rear-wheel drive
Gearbox: Automatic, 1 gear
Front suspension:
Independent, McPherson type
Rear suspension:
Independent, couble wishbones
Steering: Electric power steering
Front/rear: Alcon discs
18”
Body: reinforced steel monocoque with integral roll bar
Length/width: 4671/1950 mm
Weight: 1575 kg
The CUPRA e-Racer was the world's first fully electric touring car. CUPRA became the benchmark in the Electric Touring Car World Cup and won the drivers‘ and manufacturers’ titles in 2021 and 2022, the two years it was held.
CUPRA was born in 2018 as an independent brand and immediately set out a revolutionary racing strategy. CUPRA Racing set out to pave the way for new electric car competitions, and the project led to the development of the CUPRA e-Racer, a project that began to take shape as early as 2017.
Work on the CUPRA e-Racer accelerated from 2018 with the brand's driver Jordi Gené. CUPRA thus became the first manufacturer to develop an electric touring car. The CUPRA Racing engineers, led by the head of R&D Xavi Serra (current director of CUPRA Racing), faced a completely new challenge. They started from scratch, from a blank sheet of paper. CUPRA Racing had to shape everything: the vehicle concept, batteries, design, weight distribution, electronics and safety.
In this way, CUPRA led the way technically, and the initial e-Racer concept was the benchmark for the creation of an international multi-make competition, which was established in 2021 under the name Pure ETCR.
At the end of 2019, development of a new generation of the e-Racer began, on the platform of the new CUPRA Leon. The model was unveiled during the inauguration of the CUPRA Garage in Martorell, the new headquarters of CUPRA Racing, in February 2020. Alongside the e-Racer, the ICE CUPRA Leon Competition, the car designed for the TCR World Championships and endurance racing, was also unveiled.
Development continued throughout 2020. The battery was the core element that shaped the design and location of the remaining elements of the e-Racer. With a capacity of 65 kWh, it weighed 450 kg, almost a third of the car's total weight. It was positioned as low as possible to achieve a centre of gravity as close to the ground as possible. This allowed for great cornering dynamics, despite the high weight.
The e-Racer was rear-wheel drive and powered by four electric motors mounted over the rear axle. Continuous power output was 300 kW (410 HP), with a maximum of 500 kW (680 HP). Torque was impressive at almost 1,000 Nm. With only one gear in the transmission, that translated into astonishing acceleration: 3.2 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h and just 8.2 from 0 to 200 km/h.
The CUPRA e-Racer featured an energy recovery system that harnessed energy from braking and decelerating. The steering wheel integrated a display panel that the driver and engineers could monitor and transfer a full range of vehicle performance data in real time, for efficient energy management.
Finally, in 2021, the championship got underway. The CUPRA X Zengö Motorsport team included drivers Mikel Azcona, Mattias Ekström, Jordi Gené and Dániel Nagy. The Pure ETCR races were short, sprint races with a lot of action and wheel-to-wheel fighting on the track. The driver who scored the most points was crowned ‘King of the Weekend’. And, in the first round at Vallelunga (Italy), it was Azcona, with Ekström third and Gené fourth. CUPRA had won the first ever electric touring car race and the CUPRA e-Racer was the car to beat.
The rest of the season was a success for CUPRA Racing. The team claimed victory in three of the season's five races. In a thrilling final race, Mattias Ekström won the drivers‘ title and CUPRA the constructors’ title. Victory in the Pure ETCR was a demonstration of the capability of electric technology and allowed the brand to gain its own experience and know-how to apply to future electric production CUPRAs.
The first season of the multi-make electric touring car championship had generated a great deal of interest and impact. So much so that the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) gave the championship World Cup status for 2022. Now called the FIA ETCR - eTouring Car World Cup, CUPRA was the first manufacturer to confirm its entry.
With the CUPRA EKS team, the new CUPRA driver line-up consisted of champion Mattias Ekström, Adrien Tambay, Tom Blomqvist and Jordi Gené. The performance of the CUPRA e-Racer was even better than the previous year. CUPRA scored 4 victories in the 6 races, and was the brand with the most points scored in 5 of the 6 races. Tambay was crowned FIA ETCR World Champion and CUPRA retained the manufacturers' title.
The FIA ETCR was not continued in 2023. The previous two years, CUPRA had been the benchmark in the Electric Touring Car World Cup, taking all the drivers‘ and manufacturers’ titles. The CUPRA e-Racer had proven to be the best electric touring car in the world.