- Groundbreakingly sustainable: New charging concept for electric rallying
- Flexible: Charging infrastructure from Opel partner SCHALL-E is mobile and efficient
- Powerful: Battery of Corsa Rally Electric recharges to 80 percent of its capacity in less than 25 minutes
Opel has been electrifying rallying with the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe” and the Opel Corsa Rally Electric since 2021. The unique concept is full of innovations and one of them is the mobile charging infrastructure of the world’s first electric one-make rally cup. The brief was clear: a sustainable solution had to be found; generators have no place in the philosophy of the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup. The charging solution had to be powerful, flexible and user-friendly to meet the high demands of a rally. And in this regard, Opel is setting the standard even higher starting with the 2025 rally season: a new system will be used that is groundbreaking in terms of its efficiency.
Sustainable concept: Efficient charging solution with identical conditions for teams
Each rally car now has its own charging station with an integrated 160-kilowatt-hour storage unit, powered by a standard low-voltage power supply. This eliminates the need for a transformer previously connected to the public medium-voltage grid. Thanks to the consistently lower base load, it prevents the previously occasional voltage spikes of up to 2 megawatts, reducing both effort and costs. The new mobile charging infrastructure from Opel partner SCHALL-E also uses energy from regional providers. Opel ensures that 100 per cent of the electricity comes from renewable sources.
A further advantage of the charging infrastructure is that the Corsa Rally Electric’s 216 battery cells, with a total capacity of 50 kWh, are charged in around 25 minutes, ensuring that the electric rally cars are ready for the next special stage very quickly. Furthermore, teams can continue to perform service work on the Corsa Rally Electric while charging. These identical conditions for all participants ensure a level playing field and are essential for the world’s first electric one-make rally cup.
Mobile, modular, time-saving: Innovative infrastructure can be used anywhere
Particularly practical for the rally circus that moves from venue to venue: the entire charging infrastructure is compact and fits on two articulated lorries. The mobile system can be transported to any rally route in Europe – both in urban and rural areas, and at very short notice. Setting up or dismantling the charging infrastructure, which was developed specifically for and with Opel and is therefore unique in its kind, takes just one day. The new system does not require water cooling, the cabling is simpler and the cables themselves are significantly thinner than before.
Another major advantage given the constantly changing local conditions: the charging points are not tied to a fixed structure, but can be positioned freely and independently of each other. The highly flexible system has a modular structure and therefore offers individual adaptation to the respective needs of the user and a correspondingly wide range of applications – including use at the rally service area. The mobile park is therefore specially adapted for rally use and makes it possible to permanently supply all participant vehicles with the maximum power output everywhere.
“Selecting a charging infrastructure that optimally meets the needs of the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup ‘powered by GSe’ was a complex process,” explains Jörg Schrott, Head of Opel Motorsport. “Our previous charging infrastructure was the best concept for us in recent years. However, developments in electromobility are progressing rapidly, and new systems are on the market that meet our requirements even better. Since we now work with low voltage, we do not need our own transformer. The new system with battery storage is just as powerful as the previous one, but simpler to set up and operate, significantly more cost-effective, and therefore much more efficient overall. And nothing changes for the teams: They arrive at the rally, plug in the charging cables – and the power flows.”
