Electric racing knowhow gained in the white-hot competition of Formula E, was put to great use as the NIO EP9 established a new lap record for a road car around the world-famous Nurburgring Nordschliefe.
On the eve of the recent Monaco ePrix, Peter Dumbrek lapped the 20.8km of the ‘green hell’ in just 6m45.9s in the EP9, consolidating its status as the fastest electric car in the world.
The EP9 is the first road car produced by the NextEV company, which has been a part of the Formula E championship since it partnered with Team China Racing is the first season of the all-electric street racing series.
Since then it has become a manufacturer entry in the series in its own right, and according to Gerry Hughes, the head of the High Performance Programme and the Team Principal of the Formula E team, the lessons learned in building the NextEV 001 and 002 race cars were applied to making the EP9.
“There are more than just tangible synergies between what we do here as a race team at the track in a competitive environment and the EP9, which is a record-breaker on track,” says Hughes. “There’s a huge amount of learning from our activities in Formula E which we’ve crossed over into the EP9 in terms of the design, development, and the running of the car. That’s everything from suspension, composite structures through to powertrain. It’s a widespread crossover of information, technology and experience from the racetrack to the road.”
Although there are no common components shared between the Formula E single-seater and the EP9, which features 1 megawatt of power – that’s over 1300bhp! – and is built to order at a cost of just under $1.5m, there has been a significant amount of knowledge transfer.
“It’s fair to say that a number of our supplier base, a number of people we work with on a daily basis in the Formula E environment, are also involved with the EP9 so it’s not just a case that we are separate entities,” Hughes adds. “The EP9 is about showcasing to the world that NextEV and NIO have the capabilities of building not only great race cars but also high-performance road cars.”
The first mass-production road car from NIO, the ES8, is due to go on sale at the end of this year.