‘We love to run these cars because you know, there’s no smell, no exhaust, it’s not noisy with people setting up their anti-lag systems. Yeah, we like it a lot’
Kenneth Hansen, team principal at Hansen Motorsport
Rallycross (RX) is the ideal candidate for electrification and, as it made the switch at the start of 2022, actually beat Formula E to the count in being the first all-electric series with FIA world championship status.
With short duration heats, the need for excessively large, and therefore heavy, battery packs is negated, while the instant torque of an electric powertrain perfectly suits the point and squirt nature of RX and its short course tracks.
Teams were given the choice of retro fitting their existing ICE Supercar class machines, or building bespoke cars to the new rules. In the case of Hansen Motorsport, which won the title in 2015, 2019 and 2021 and is headed by founder and principal, Kenneth, himself a 14-times European RX champion, it went the retro fit route.
Having previously been the factory effort for Peugeot Sport, Hansen took its successful, ICE-powered 208 RX1, a car under constant development since 2014, and turned it electric.
Pros and cons
According to Hansen, speaking at the Lydden Hill, UK, World RX round in July, there are pros and cons to each approach. For his team, it was the financial reality of building a completely new car, and
