CUPRA announces its participation in Extreme E: The race against time.
Electrification and performance have always been at the core of CUPRA with the
brand's continual presence in Formula E since its inception and the development of
the first-ever electric touring racing car, the CUPRA e-Racer. Today, CUPRA's
vision of fully electric mobility counts more than ever, as the brand plans to join
a race that we can all get behind.
Taking advantage of the inauguration of its first CUPRA Garage in Europe in the
German city of Hamburg, CUPRA announced its participation in the Extreme E racing
series, pairing up with ABT Sportsline as the racing team's main partner and will
contribute to lining up a team of engineers and drivers for this electric odyssey.
What is Extreme E?
Developed by the founder of Formula E, Alejandro Agag, Extreme E is a racing event that aims to reinvent motorsport. By bringing electric racing to some of the most remote corners of the planet, spanning four continents featuring Arctic, desert, rainforest, glacier and ocean locations, it aims to highlight the climate change challenges faced by different ecosystems, while showcasing the performance of all-electric SUVs in extreme conditions.
Lightweight electric off-road racers will compete in a series of contests that will
take the form of qualifying, semi-final and final sprints, staged on a two-lap run
over a 5-mile, off-road track. As a show of support to gender equality in both
motorsport and the workplace, teams will be made up of one male and one female
driver, with a mid-race switch upon completion of the first lap. CUPRA ambassador
Mattias Ekström has already been confirmed as the male driver with the female
driver expected to be announced soon.
The goal of Extreme E is to promote sustainability and the adoption of electric
vehicles to help protect the planet, a vision CUPRA also believes in. That said,
Extreme E will be overseen by an expert independent panel of scientists from
Cambridge and Oxford universities. Additionally, the event's organisers have
proposed that the entire operation will be transported on a specially-converted
Royal Mail cargo ship that will double up as a mobile environmental research
laboratory, taking flying and its heavy carbon footprint out of the equation and
bolstering the approach to ecological sustainability to further reduce the
environmental impact associated with global transportation.
CUPRA e-racing academy
During the press talk between CUPRA, ABT and Extreme E's senior executives, CUPRA CEO Wayne Griffiths also announced that CUPRA is working on the creation of the world's first electric racing academy. With this new project, which highlights the brand's pioneering role in the world of motorsport, CUPRA will be contributing to the development of electric racing by training the new generation of race drivers. The brand will take advantage of its in-house development of the first-ever electric touring racing car, the CUPRA e-Racer, for the rollout of the new academy.
Now more than ever we are all racing against the clock for a better future. And it's the one race we can only win together.
Mattias Ekström
Das schwedische Ass setzt seine 22-jährige Geschichte bei ABT
Sportsline fort. Ekström wurde als langjähriger Audi Werksfahrer in der
Motorsportwelt bekannt und wurde zweimaliger DTM-Champion. Anschließend startete er
mit seinem EKS-Team in der FIA-Rallycross-Weltmeisterschaft, wo Ekström 2016 zum
Weltmeister gekürt wurde. Ekström wird 2019 E-Botschafter bei CUPRA und Teil
unserer Zukunft der Elektromobilität auf der Rennstrecke.
Mehr Informationen
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