FIA Approves All-Tesla Racing Series

The Formula E electric racing series is about to have competition. On Thursday, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) gave the green light to an all-Tesla racing series.

The Verge reports that the Electric Production Car Series aspires to be an ultimate battle royale between the best all-around electric cars, but because performance electric cars are scarce, it’ll start with Teslas. And Elon Musk must be tickled pink.

Initially, the series will use modified Tesla P100Ds, with nearly 800 total horsepower. Normal P100Ds achieve about 680 combined front/rear HP, with a 100-kWh lithium-ion battery, a combined 98 MPGe, a combined 315 mile range, and a speedy acceleration of 0-60 MPH in 2.28 seconds.

Of course, as The Verge points out, this initial version of the EPCS has one obvious hitch – “all the race modifications in the world … don’t change the fact that it’s still a Tesla controlled by Tesla software. And since Tesla isn’t particularly keen to let people go poking around in the company’s software — specifically on the battery management side of things — the problem with running the car on a race track is that it still thinks it’s a road car, and so the system starts to shut down when it notices that the battery is getting too hot.”

Also, with just Teslas in the fray, and the company’s reluctance to let individual teams tinker with the internal software, the customization options present in a series like Formula are – at least initially – minimal.

Read more here: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/1/16959322/tesla-racing-series-gt-p100d-approved