ABB Partners with NASCAR to Promote EV Racing & Sustainability

The new ABB NASCAR Electrification Innovation Partnership will explore high-performance electric racing and create strategic opportunities for electrification in the sport, including race vehicles, electrification infrastructure, and energy education.

ABB becomes a founding partner of NASCAR IMPACT, a platform driving sustainability initiatives across the sport. This supports NASCAR’s plan to reduce its own carbon operating footprint to zero by 2035. ABB serves as a key strategic technology and sustainability partner in the venture as NASCAR evolves its office, track, racing competition, and long-haul transportation operations.

With this move, ABB continued its strategy of using electrically powered race cars to promote its EV chargers, as well as its broad portfolio of electrical power solutions for electrification projects, industrial and building automation and sustainable power systems.

The company and NASCAR announced the ABB NASCAR Electrification Innovation Partnership in the United States and revealed a new EV prototype at the 2024 NASCAR Chicago Street Race on July 6-7. This partnership brings together world leaders in EV technology and auto racing to advance NASCAR’s strategic ambitions across electrification.

“ABB is a technology leader in electrification and automation, and we help customers globally to optimize, electrify and decarbonize their operations,” said Ralph Donati, ABB executive VP, in the press release. “The objective of the collaboration between NASCAR, ABB in the United States and the NASCAR industry is to push the boundaries of electrification technology, from EV racing to long-haul transportation to facility operations.”

As part of the partnership, ABB in the United States will also help NASCAR achieve public sustainability targets around electrification and electric vehicle charging. While NASCAR is committed to the historic role of the combustion engine in racing, it is also committed to decarbonizing its operations and reducing its own carbon footprint to zero across its core operations by 2035 through electrification and innovative solutions.

“There could not be a more optimal moment in time to announce our first IMPACT partner than in tandem with the debut of our prototype electric vehicle at the Chicago Street Race,” said Eric Nyquist, NASCAR senior VP and chief IMPACT officer, in the press release. “ABB is an industry leader and will help in efforts to decarbonize our operations as we pursue achieving net-zero operating emissions over the next decade.”

The ABB press release said the ABB NASCAR EV Prototype is the latest innovation from the NASCAR Research and Development Center team, which recently completed the largest overhaul of the NASCAR Cup Series car in NASCAR’s 75-year history. The Next Gen car, which debuted in 2022, put the ‘stock’ back in stock car, modernizing most of the vehicle’s components. It also marked NASCAR’s rededication to product relevance in ensuring its race cars match production cars on the street as much as possible.

The EV prototype was developed in collaboration with NASCAR’s OEM partners – Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota – and was built by the NASCAR engineers responsible for the Next Gen car and the Garage 56 entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The track-tested, electrified stock car has three STARD UHP 6-Phase motors (one front, two rear) supplying power directly to all four specially designed Goodyear Racing Eagle tires. Anchored by a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery, the tunable powertrain can produce 1,000 kW at peak power. Regenerative braking converts kinetic energy into power, making the car ideal for road courses and short oval tracks.

ABB is a founding partner of NASCAR IMPACT, an umbrella platform launched to shepherd sustainability, community engagement, and other social initiatives. At the core of NASCAR IMPACT is NASCAR’s plan to reduce its own carbon footprint to zero across its core operations by 2035.

This partnership with NASCAR continues ABB’s commitment to driving progress in clean mobility, amplified by the appeal of motorsport. ABB, at a global level, has been title partner of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship since 2018. It’s the world’s first all-electric, single-seater race series, and is promoted as a testbed for innovative technologies which will support in the race for the energy transition.