We hate to say it, but the words “electric car” and “delayed” just appear too frequently together.
As we approach the middle of 2011 we’ve seen lots of automakers slip behind on electric car schedules, whether that’s delayed launches, delays in deliveries or even legal delays, but we’ve not yet heard of a delayed motor racing series.
Until now, that is.
Bearing bad news, the European-based EVCup - a specially designed electric car race series designed to bring electric cars to the big-bucks world of motorsport - has announced that its seven-event 2011 race series has been delayed until 2012.
Westfield iRacer
In its place, the two Californian races due to end the 2011 season, one at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and one at the Auto Club Speedway, will still go ahead as planned to provide a prelude to a full 2012 race series.
“The EV world is developing extremely quickly with technical advances happening almost on a daily basis,” explained Sylvian Fillippi, Managing Director of the EVcup. “The requirements for safety aspects and the delivery schedule for race cars was not going to allow sufficient time for testing. We need to ensure that we are absolutely ready and have everything exactly right before we start.”
It is unclear from Fillippi’s statement to which vehicle he is referring, but the series had planned three distinct race classes: CityEV, SportsEV and PrototypeEV. While the PrototypeEV class is designed to be open to any non-production electric racing car, the CityEV class consists only of race-modified Think City EVs while the SportsEV class only features specially designed single-seat Westfield iRacers.
Given that two of the three classes are focused on specific vehicles, could the delay be caused by manufacturer delays or something more sinister? Let us know in the Comments below.
[EVcup]
