A new electric race car series is set to launch in 2017 and a fleet of Tesla Model S models will be used to fill up the grid.
The freshly announced race championship will be called Electric GT World Series and for its first year at least, every car on the grid will be a racing version of the Tesla Model S P85+.
The Electric GT World Series has been founded by Agustin Paya, a Spanish racing driver who specialises in electric vehicle competition.
Paya believes electric cars will influence the next generation of motorsport fans, thanks in large part to the emergence of the Formula E series, which is currently in its second ever season. The aim with the Electric GT World Series is to represent the kind of electric vehicles people can actually buy, hence the use of the Model S.
Other manufacturers to join?
With few other road-going, fully-electric cars capable of combining high-speed performance and the ability to race for sustained periods on a single charge, the Model S is the one natural choice for the new series.
However, Paya told the Spanish news outlet 20 Minutos that other car manufacturers have already expressed interest in joining the Electric GT World Series in the future. Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and Jaguar were manufacturers which Paya mentioned.
For the inaugural 2017 season of the Electric GT World Series, there will be 10 teams and 20 drivers partaking, with each driver behind the wheel of racing-spec Tesla.
Even without racing modifications, the Tesla Model S P85+ delivers 416bhp from its electric motors and can cover the 0-60mph sprint in just 4.2 seconds, while the top speed is 130mph.
