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e-IndyCar: Chevy-Honda hybrid race engines debut at Mid-Ohio
Posted by Talbot Payne on July 4, 2024
Behind the intense competition of professional racing, motorsports is a showcase for automakers’ technology and marketing trends.
This weekend at the IndyCar 200 at Mid-Ohio race course near Lexington, IndyCar will become the latest racing series to move to hybrid powertrains following Formula One and the MSA SportsCar Championship.
The move is a priority for the series’ two engine suppliers, Chevrolet and Honda. The two brands have been among the most aggressive automakers in pushing electrification — and they want the IndyCar racing teams they supply to reflect that ambition. At a time when the industry is under historic pressure from governments to adopt battery power, electrification initiatives also help insulate motorsports from political pressure.
While both Chevrolet and Honda promise fully electric model lines by 2040, the move to hybrid IndyCar drivetrains dovetails with current production trends. Manufacturers and their government partners oversold EV adoption and are pivoting to gas-electric power plants as a more realistic market solution.
Similarly, North American racing series do not see EV racing as ready for prime time.
“We certainly have no aspirations of being a fully electric series. We’re fast, loud and authentic,” said IndyCar President Jay Frye in an interview ahead of the IndyCar 200. “This is something that is very relevant . . . in passenger cars. We think the hybrid program is the way to go into the future. I certainly don’t see IndyCar becoming a full EV series.”
IndyCar’s hybrid focus dovetails with Formula One and IMSA, which have also moved towards hybrid drivetrains — but ultimately see synthetic fuels as the answer to internal sustainability goals requiring zero-carbon emission machines. As governments force manufacturers to zero-emission vehicles, automakers hope synfuels development in racing will become a viable commercial alternative to power a new generation on internal combustion engines.
“Look at the manufacturers and what’s important to them: electrification and hybrids,” said President Bud Denker of Penske Corporation, which owns IndyCar. “It’s important for us also to be sustainable from a series standpoint. We were the first series in North America to have renewable fuel — an ethanol, bio-based product.”
Formula One, too, sees renewable fuel as its future, targeting synfuels for use in its 50-50 gas-electric hybrid missiles in 2026.
“(Formula One) will never go electric,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali told Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore last year. “Zero emissions can be achieved without having to change engines or throw away the entire fleet of vehicles that already exists.”
Chevrolet and Honda jointly developed the hybrid power unit that will be paired with their 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged, V-6 gas engines. The engines in turn are fueled by Shell ethanol fuel derived from sugarcane waste.
While Chevy and Honda have committed to produce only battery-powered EVs by — respectively, 2035 and 2040 — they both used the IndyCar announcement to tout their current hybrid vehicles.
Honda’s latest, 2025 Civic Hybrid will pace the IndyCar field to green.
“Hybrid is that bridge in electrification to where we’re maybe in the future 10, 15 years out,” said Wayne Gross, manager of trackside engineering for Honda. “Honda has been pretty heavily into the hybrids for a few years now with CR-V and Accord and now the Civic.”
At Chevy, Corvette has become the new hybrid brand halo. “We’re definitely getting some hybrid cars,” said Mark Stielow, General Motors Co.’s director of motorsports competition engineering. “I drove a (hybrid Corvette) E-Ray for a while, and it was a great experience. We’re going to keep adding more (hybrids) to our portfolio, and we’re learning more about it in racing.”
GM and Honda had already worked together on the hybrid system for IMSA sportscar’s GTP prototype class. Their Cadillac and Acura GTP racers have been a success, with fans flocking to races from Daytona to Detroit to Atlanta to watch the world’s greatest brands go toe-to-hybrid.
IndyCar hopes its new hybrid formula will also be a fan favorite by introducing another tool for drivers to use in the series’ tight, competitive racing.
“We delayed (the new powertrain) for a few months because we (wanted) to be sure that, when we are racing that product, that it’s bulletproof. Because we have great racing now,” said Penske’s Denker. “We have the most competitive racing in the world. So many different people can win a race on any given weekend. So much passing going on that we want to make sure we don’t mess that up.”
The IndyCar system is geared to performance with a lightweight solution assembled by Ilmor that adds about 100 pounds to the 1,680-pound race cars. Utilizing electric capacitors instead of a heavy battery, the power unit will offer drivers up to 60 more horsepower to shoot by competitors – or they can use its regenerative capabilities to save fuel and outlast their rivals.
“We want it. . . to be used by the drivers to make the racing more dynamic and more interesting for the spectators,” said GM’s Stielow. “So this is another tool that we’re bringing to the drivers to enable there to be a little bit better competition, a little more passing.”
The 48-volt system also promises to be safer and less complicated than the high-voltage, 800-volt systems in IMSA GTP sportscars – systems that require executive track briefings to avoid potential electrocution if a race car is mishandled.
The Whelen Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R prototype won the Motul 100 at the Daytona Roar Before the 24. The win puts the Caddy on pole for the Rolex 24 on January 30. IMSA
“They’re totally different systems, architected way differently,” said Stielow. “Nothing in my program is shared between the two of them.”
There’s palpable excitement from the manufacturers for the weekend ahead.
“(The Hybrid tech) is why we were so excited to get involved in this project. It’s engaged all of our engineers. It’s very relevant to the road cars,” said Honda’s Gross. Hybridization “has been core to Honda’s DNA for many years now. It’s relating what we do on the racetrack to selling cars. Race on Sunday, sell on Monday.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne