It was a matter of time. After the Opel Corsa-e Rally became the first electric rally car, now it was Skoda Motorsport's turn, together with Skoda Austria, Kreisel Electric and Baumschlager Rallye & Racing, to create an electric rally car based on the Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo.
Known as Skoda RE-X1 Kreisel , is still a prototype, however, it has already been approved by the Austrian Automobile Federation (ÖAMTC). For that reason this prototype is ready to race in the Austrian Rally Championship.
About this prototype, Skoda Motorsport Director Michal Hrabánek said: “It is an exciting combination of traditionalism and future-oriented technology (…) the car offers all the configuration possibilities of the latest generation Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo, but with 100% electrical mechanics”.
a difficult transformation
Of course, transforming the Fabia Rally2 evo into an electric rally car was no easy task. Although the process has not been explained in detail (and it was not expected that it would be, in the case of a competition prototype), the Czech brand revealed that it had to make significant changes to the body and chassis to accommodate the ion batteries of lithium.
With 52.5 kWh of capacity they had to be installed in the lowest possible position to benefit the center of gravity. Its role is to “feed” a Kreisel electric motor that delivers 354 hp and 600 Nm. Just to give you an idea, these values are superior to the 291 hp and 425 Nm offered by the 1.6 l turbo that equips the Fabia Rally2 evo competition!
Equipped with a revised suspension, this Skoda RE-X1 Kreisel will also be accompanied by a specific charging station with 200 kW of power.