NASCAR showed off a prototype of an electric stock car racing event last year. Even though it looked like an SUV, that car was very different from all the others on the road today. Finally, Chevrolet has added a third electric stock-car prototype to its lineup. This comes after Ford announced its own electric crossover racer last month. The Chevy Blazer EV.R NASCAR Prototype is what it’s called. It looks a lot like the Blazer SS EV that can go on the road. With three six-phase motors running at over 15,000 rpm, the EV.R. has an amazing 1300 horsepower, which is much more than the road car’s impressive 615 horsepower. In the NASCAR Cup Series today, V-8-powered Next Gen stock cars must have at least 670 horsepower. This amount is more than twice that number. The Blazer EV.R all-wheel drive has three motors, just like the Ford and NASCAR unbranded prototypes. Inside a changed Next Gen frame is a 78.0-kWh battery that is cooled by liquid and powers the motors. The other two protesters also have one thing in common: their cars no longer have stabilization. Like those cars, the Blazer EV.R wasn’t made to compete with other electric vehicles. It describes Chevrolet’s ongoing efforts to test, learn, and explore new technologies that may be used in both race programs and production cars. In other words, it shows what an electric race car might look like in the decades to come. The three linked electric NASCAR demonstrations are based on the same basic ideas. Soon, those ideas might be turned into rules. If NASCAR and the makers that want to compete want it, an electric stock car racing series could follow. It doesn’t look like it will happen soon, but it could be a big test in the future. Until then, you can see the Blazer EV.R at the Daytona 500 this weekend.
