Electric car revamped for second outing
WELLINGTON: Hayden Paddon’s electric rally car will get its second outing this weekend.
The Hyundai Kona EV rally car goes into competition for just the second time at the Ashley Forest Rallysprint in North Canterbury.
Paddon won the 1.7km gravel hillclimb when it was last run in 2019 in his Hyundai i20 AP4 rally car.
Now Paddon is focused on winning the hillclimb in the
Paddon
Rallysportdeveloped allelectric
Hyundai
Kona rally car.
He and his team have fit ted another motor into the car, and 80% of the Kona EV was designed inhouse by Paddon’s New Zealand team at its Cromwell base.
The 400+ kW electricpowered rally car is a one of a kind in New Zealand so far and has already shown it is competitive, when Paddon drove it to victory in its first outing at the Waimate 50 Motorsport Festival in October last year.
Paddon is excited to line up for the Ashley Forest hillclimb, an event first run in 1979 by Canterbury’s RATEC Motorsport Club, and one that Paddon has long followed.
In recent developments with the Kona EV, a third motor has been fitted to give it more power.
Paddon described it as an interim development until a new battery arrived from Austrian company Stohl Advanced Research and Development, which provided technical support.
‘‘I’m very excited for this event, particularly after we tested the Kona EV in its new configuration two weeks ago.
‘‘There is a big unknown in terms of what the car is capable of, but I think that is also why the whole team is excited to see what can be achieved.
‘‘The major, most recent development is the mounting of an extra motor, so the Kona EV is now powered by three motors which gives it more power.’’ — RNZ