Jörg Schrott: “We have shown that electric rallying is possible!”

What has been Opel’s motorsport strategy since it became part of Stellantis Motorsport?

The Opel brand has always competed in two racing categories where customers could easily recognise and identify with their everyday cars: touring cars and rallying. At a certain point in time, for various reasons, we decided to focus on rallying. The idea was to create a genuine pyramid structure. This started in 2013, with an entry-level car at the base – the Opel Adam Cup. The series was called the ADAC Opel Rallye Cup at the time and it has since evolved to become the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by Gse”. Both brand cups have proved to be incredibly popular, with no fewer than 136 drivers from 22 different countries taking part over the years. But the idea was also to enable the most talented drivers to move up to the next level, which is why we decided to offer the winner of the Cup the chance to compete in the Junior European Rally Championship for a works Opel team, initially with the Adam R2, and now with the Corsa Rally4. This has also proven pretty successful, since we have entered the Junior ERC (European Rally Championship) on eight occasions and have won it five times.

How did the idea of the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe” take seed?

Motorsport, even more so now, is a marketing tool that needs to make a return on investment. We had been working on transforming the motorsport business to support the electric route, Opel was heading towards, when the idea of creating the first all-electric rallye cup began to take shape in 2019. Since this project was a perfect match of Opel’s strategy of becoming the first full electric brand within Stellantis, the Opel board were fully committed to pilot this project.

What challenges did you have to overcome?

Obviously, we had to develop an all-electric rally car totally from scratch, but that wasn't the most difficult part. Above all, we had to come up with a full set of specifications and safety standards for electric rallying, as none of it existed at that point. We did everything we could to ensure the system implemented was as comprehensive and exhaustive as possible.

Another issue proved to be a real challenge: providing adequate charging facilities. Clearly, it was unthinkable for us to produce electricity using diesel-powered generators. We therefore had to conduct a lot of research and investigations in this area to find the right charging solution. We now use something quite unique: we make use of a transformer to connect to the public electricity grid where we draw green current from renewable sources. At peak usage, when all our rally cars are connected to the grid, we need around 2 megawatts of power. The system therefore must be reliable and stable. So far, so good : in four years of operating, we have yet to have any issues whatsoever with the power supply!

What have you learned so far?

We have shown that electric rallying is possible! We have also seen that the cars are very secure and reliable, and our safety system has proven to be effective. We did a lot of work on safety, among others with specialist firefighters from Frankfurt airport and our works fire service. There have been many offs by our young competitors and thus far, the protocols implemented, and the monitoring of the high-voltage system have worked perfectly. We never had an issue with the high voltage system or the battery of the car, not even in the case of an accident. This makes us really proud of what we have achieved - moreover since the main core elements of our Opel Corsa Rally Electric come from the production model, i.e. the battery, the inverter and the electric motor. There are several reasons for this. We are engaged in customer racing, which means that the car needs to be affordable for young drivers. By using tried and tested technology, we can offer competitive pricing. In four years, we have proved that our production technology is reliable. Furthermore, our production colleagues are really pleased because we provide them with lots of data acquired in the extremely changeable and difficult conditions that you get in rallying. Analysing those data gain speed to improve production technology in the future.