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Teslas will battle in a new global all-electric racing series

Teslas will battle in a new global all-electric racing series

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The Electric GT World Series could wave a green flag as soon as next year

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A new all-electric racing series has been announced that will pit Tesla sedans against each other on famous race tracks around the world. The series was created by a company called Electric GT Holdings, and the first race could take place as soon as 2017. News of the series comes as Formula E, the other global all-electric racing series, is in the midst of its second season.

The Electric GT World Series will feature ten teams, each equipped with near-production versions of the discontinued Tesla Model S P85+. (We've reached out to Tesla for comment.) Agustin Payá, the series' technical director and a professional driver himself, told Transport Evolved that very few modifications will be made to the cars. "We are making only small changes to the production Model S P85+ such as improved braking and aerodynamics to increase high speed grip. We will strengthen suspension, braking cooling and steering as well as reducing overall weight,” Payá says.

The new series will focus on cars that you can buy

The P85+ was one of a number of performance-minded variants of the Tesla Model S. It generates 310 kilowatts of power and 443 pound-feet of torque, all of which gets translated too the road by one rear-wheel drive motor. (Payá told Transport Evolved that Electric GT Holdings opted against using Tesla's all-wheel drive Model S variants because the RWD versions will be less complicated to maintain.) The battery in the P85+ has a capacity of 85 kWh, far more than the 28kWh offered by the batteries found in the cars of Formula E. On the road, that translates to a range of around 250 miles, but that number is likely to change dramatically under high-performance racing conditions.

That should allow the cars of Electric GT World Series to compete on bigger, faster tracks than Formula E. (Right now, Formula E only holds races on small street circuits, typically hosted in city centers.) An official race calendar will reportedly be revealed later this year, but Electric GT Holdings told Transport Evolved that the series is already negotiating with famous tracks like Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Donington Park, and even Nürburgring.

Formula E has run just 15 races, but the series is already proving that people around the world are interested in the idea of all-electric motorsports. Electric GT World Series could take the idea one step further, since it's focused on production cars that consumers are much more familiar with. And while it's starting with Teslas, the series says it hopes to add other all-electric production cars to the mix down the road, meaning the dream of all-electric stock car racing might not be as far off as we thought.