The power kits, which will be provided by Austria’s Kreisel Electric, the official supplier of the electrification kit to the world championship, includes two 250kW motors, one on each axle, two inverters and a 52.65kWh battery with an innovative cooling system. The power units will develop 500 kW (680 horsepower).

The kit can be retrofitted to existing internal combustion-powered World RX Supercars or built into an all-new chassis.

The electric kits are priced at 300,000Euros with an additional 100,000Euros for four years of technical support. The cost is lower than the current Supercar power units over the same period. Performance levels of RX1e will be higher than existing ICE Supercars, with a significant power and torque increase and with a contained weight gain.

Kreisel Electric, founded by Philipp, Johann and Markus Kreisel in 2014, is collaborating with GCK Energy, the approved energy supplier. A prototype World RX1e car has already been tested by Kreisel with impressive results.

Philipp Kreisel, managing director of Kreisel Electric, said: "We are very happy to confirm that there is good progress on the World RX1e kit and we are fully on schedule. Despite the COVID-19 crisis and the postponement of the series to 2022 we were able to finalize the design of the performance kit and start testing with the mule-car. Beyond this I would like underline the outstanding collaboration with the FIA who make this ground-breaking project possible.”

The original intention was to introduce full-electric racing to the FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2021. However, following a World Motor Sport Council e-vote in April this year it was decided to delay the implementation until 2022 due to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a delay to introducing electrification to the FIA World Rallycross Championship,” said Gyarfas Olah, president of the FIA Off-Road Commission.

“Nonetheless, we are committed to a new, electric future which has as guiding principles cost control and demonstration of the huge power capabilities of full electric road car-based Supercars. Together with Kreisel we are developing a performance package which is sustainable and enables teams to be part of a highly-competitive electric racing series. The fans, who are used to very spectacular races in rallycross, will be thrilled by the acceleration power of the coming RX1e cars.”

Additional details of the World RX1e programme will be revealed in due course.

Meanwhile, the FIA RX2e Championship, the first-ever FIA electric rallycross championship, will be part of the 2021 season. The RX2e car, jointly developed by Spanish electro-mobility specialist QEV Technologies and Swedish rallycross team Olsbergs MSE, has undergone extensive testing.

Six race weekends are planned for the junior-entry RX2e in 2021, running alongside FIA World RX. The full calendar has yet to be announced. 

A new naming convention was approved for rallycross at the FIA World Motor Sport Council in October. The approved changes for the categories involved in FIA Championships from 2021 are as follows: 

• Supercar will become RX1
• Electric Supercar will be known as RX1e 
• The new Junior electric series will become RX2e 
• Super1600 will be known as RX3

World RX1e – technical details