Electrified touring cars “not happening soon” according to the FIA

The return of an international fully electric touring car championship is not on the cards for the immediate future according to FIA Circuit Sport Deputy Director Stuart Murray.

“I think if ten or even five or six years ago you were telling people that in 2025-2026 we would still be internal combustion, they would have been surprised,” said Murray to TouringCarTimes.

“Because everyone thought there was going to be this huge rush towards electrification, which ultimately hasn’t happened, not just in motorsport but in the general automotive market.”

The FIA has instead worked together with WSC, the TCR rights holders, to introduce sustainable fuels for the TCR categories, with the plan to increase from the current 50% fuel mix to 100% in 2026.

“The move towards sustainable fuels has allowed us to continue and the challenge is obviously transitioning in the road going market. We can make a big effort in racing to show what is feasible and what is achievable,” said Murray.

“So it’s almost now for the road market to catch up, because obviously sustainable fuels are not currently so cheap.

“We can afford them in motorsport but the man in the street isn’t necessarily wanting to spend that kind of money for putting a litre of very expensive fuel into his car, that’s where the general market now has to catch up with us and we will still obviously just monitor to see what happens with electric or hybrid or even further on down with hydrogen.”

The all-electric FIA ETCR series ran for just two seasons in 2021 and 2022, featuring Cupra, Hyundai and Romeo Ferraris (privately developed Alfa Romeos), before the series was closed down following a split between the FIA and promoter Discovery Events.

“The ETCR was something that we did in partnership not only with WSC, who had created the technical regulations, but with Discovery Sport Events as the promoter,” said Murray.

“And unfortunately obviously it didn’t end well, despite having a lot of promise. I think ultimately it was just a bit too soon, there were some manufacturers such as Cupra who were really invested in the high end obviously as well and they saw this as a great option for the future.

“But we were just maybe three or four years too early and the market just has continued to evolve, so it’s not something that we’re looking to relaunch in the immediate term.”

The ETCR concept was supposed to have been relaunched in China this year through a cooperation between Lisheng Sports and Michelin China, alongside an agreement with WSC regarding the name usage, a project which has seemingly stalled.

The FIA announced a new set of Electric Sport Vehicle regulations two years ago, something that is also yet to materialise.

Instead the FIA is currently focusing on the FIA TCR World Tour as the pinnacle of international touring car racing.

“We will obviously focus internally in terms of our own FIA competitions and on re-establishing FIA international touring car racing through the TCR World Tour,” said Murray.

“We went through obviously the WTCC period, then the WTCR period, now we’re working with WSC to bring it back to not necessarily the same status, but rather the show and the excitement. We’ve got a great calendar this year where we’re visiting four different continents and going to some new circuits we’ve never been to.

“I think if we started to look again at another championship which is purely electric it would maybe distract us from that but, at the same time, we always keep our options open.

“In fact we have a set of FIA regulations called ESV or Electric Sport Vehicle, which are actually quite open regulations, really focused on safety. And these can be for anything from a touring car all the way up to, you know, a nice GT car, but they’re focused on primarily road based cars. It’s a way of encouraging organisers and manufacturers to take their road cars and adapt them for competition, not only for touring car competition, but for other series too.”