Forty-one year old Jochen Krumbach who has grown up at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, can be found most weekends strapped into a Manthey-Racing Porsche GT3-R competing in the German VLN series. He also set the circuit’s all-electric vehicle lap record last August in the TMG EV-P001, with a time of 7:47 minutes.
So, when Toyota Motorsports Gmbh decided to put a stopwatch to its latest developments, who better than Krumbach to get behind the wheel again – this time of the TMG EV-P002.
Using TMG’s motorsport-tuned electric powertrain installed in a Radical Sportscars chassis, Krumbach set a lap time of 7 minutes 22.329 seconds, breaking their previous record set last August by over 25 seconds.
Jochen Krumbach and the Toyota Motorsports development team stand proudly by the TMG EV-P002, after setting a new EV lap record of the Nürburgring.
Although Porsche’s new 918 Spyder recently set a time of 7:14 minutes, the 918 is a petrol-electric hybrid, whereas the TMG EV-P002 uses electric motors as its only method of propulsion. Its closest competitor is Audi’s new R8 e-tron which lapped the ‘ring in 8:09 minutes in June.
Ludwig Zeller, TMG General Manager Electrics and Electronics said, “Since our Nürburgring record last year, we have developed our electric powertrain to deliver more power, more consistently, over a longer distance by managing the temperature of batteries, motors and inverter.
“Pikes Peak was a clear illustration of the improvements and we have now reinforced that at the Nürburgring.”
During this year’s delayed Pikes Peak Hill Climb in Colorado, driver Fumio Nutahara set a time of 10 minutes 15.380 seconds to claim a new record for electric vehicles on the now fully asphalt 12.5 mile track.
As with the Pikes Peak success, TMG’s latest electric milestone used pioneering off-board battery-to-battery charging technology.
The TMG DC Quick Charger was developed in partnership with Schneider Electric GmbH to meet the challenge of recharging an electric race car at tracks without reliable access to grid power.
Mounted in the rear of a TOYOTA Hiace van, the TMG DC Quick Charger uses Schneider Electric’s EV Link technology and includes a 42kWh lithium ion battery, which can be charged direct from the AC power grid.
“..this achievement is not only about on-track performance; we are also very proud of the DC Quick Charger which again provided a reliable power supply in a remote location. This is an aspect of electric motorsport which has not been discussed at length but it is very significant; electric race cars need to be charged and it is a challenge to have the right infrastructure at race tracks, particularly temporary street circuits” said Zeller.
The TMG EV-P002 uses two axial flux electric motors with TMG inverters, producing around 469bhp (350kW) and 664lb-ft (900Nm) of torque. Lithium-ceramic batteries are used which offer very high specific energy and energy densities, thereby greater power/weight than conventional Lithium-ion based units.
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