World RX pushes back electric to 2022

The World RX will finally wait until 2022 before going electric. While the world championship of Rallycross was to offer a mixed grid with thermal Supercars versus electric ones, the FIA ​​announced that the implementation of the new regulations was postponed to 2022 following a vote by the World Council of the Federation which was held this Monday.

“If the current situation forces the transition to electric to be postponed for a year to allow competitors to adapt and invest, the FIA ​​remains committed to a new horizon for World RX, comments the president of the Federation Jean Todt. This will create a stable economic environment and demonstrate how quickly electric cars can adapt to this FIA championship. »

At this stage, the FIA ​​eRX Junior championship which is to replace the RX2 would not be impacted by this postponement and should therefore be launched next year.

“We support the decision to postpone the introduction of electric rallycross in the world championship until 2022, adds Paul Bellamy, Vice President of Motorsports Events at IMG. For the moment, the new FIA eRX Junior championship is not affected by this decision and plans for the electrification of this category continue for 2021.

“While we are engaged with the FIA, teams and partners for the future electrification of rallycross, we believe it is prudent to focus on health and wellbeing in these difficult and uncertain times”, adds Paul Bellamy.

Kreisel, the Austrian supplier of electrical kits which won the FIA ​​call for tenders, sees its project postponed although it was advanced in its work.

“We are living in unprecedented times and no one can predict what the future will hold for us, explained Philipp Kreisel, director of Kreisel Electric. We must accept the situation and protect lives. Despite all this, we must prepare to restart the machine when the time is right. We have almost completed the development of the electrical kit. We have put a lot of energy and passion into this project and it is disappointing not to see the World RX cars go electric next year. We are nevertheless convinced that by remaining united, we can make electrification in World RX a great success. »

The transition to electric is a decidedly difficult step to take for World RX. After a first project planned for 2020 which scared away manufacturers, the organizer of the IMG championship was banking heavily on this new approach to support the discipline towards electric. We will now have to wait until 2022 without knowing the situation of the participants.