Silent but speedy: Why electric go

Source: Blue Shock Race

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The history of karting dates back to 1956, when Ingels constructed the first kart with a two-horsepower engine. Since then, karting has grown into the foundation of all motorsports, with its technology, power, and safety improving countless times. Internal combustion engines have dominated karting for over 70 years, but in the past five years, more and more modern technological alternatives have emerged – electric.

Initially, electric karting technology was heavy and low-performance, so it was mainly used in entertainment businesses where its power was sufficient and it helped address CO2 pollution issues on indoor tracks. Recognizing this potential, the technology has been perfected, and nowadays, practically all new indoor karting tracks are equipped with electric karts, primarily due to the absence of air and noise pollution.

Until 2018, it was rare to see or hear about the use of this technology in competitions or at the national and international karting championship level. There were several enthusiasts and DIY projects that demonstrated impressive power results with electric karts.

It was in 2018 that two competitors vied for the market by creating the first National Electric Karting Championship, with the fight taking place between the two European countries of Latvia and Germany. On May 1, 2018, the first of six National Electric Karting Championship stages was unveiled and completed, with Richard Irbe emerging as the winner in the youth class, competing against 15 participants with a maximum power output of 15 kilowatts. A few weeks later, on May 14, Germany opened their championship with a field of 20 competitors.

Source: Blue Shock Race

It was the Latvian startup company Blue Shock Race (BSR) that brought to life the first-ever National Electric Karting Championship, creating all the necessary technology in just 30 days with an incredibly limited budget. Its history will certainly be marked as having the lowest budget and fastest realization of the first national electric karting championship in the world. Such are the challenges of pioneers, but despite the odds and limited resources, BSR managed to pull it off.

Even more impressive, during the next six stages of the championship, BSR and championship drivers managed to improve kart speed by 10 seconds per lap. In the world of motorsport, such a leap is like traveling from Earth to Mars.

Thanks to this breakthrough, BSR attracted additional investments and engineers with 30 years of experience in the karting industry. Over the next five years, BSR made rapid progress, and by 2022 its electric karts were competing against some of the world's most powerful internal combustion engine karts – competing toe-to-toe and gaining the status of the world's fastest and lightest electric karting technology.

In various media, BSR has been dubbed the "King of Electric Karting" or "Karting Tesla," among other titles.

In discussions about the future of green technology, electric technology is often presented as one of the greenest despite the sharp debates about batteries and their origins, recycling, and other matters. Within the framework of various studies, it has been found that electric technology is slightly greener than an internal combustion engine at a certain level of wear, but BSR has never tried to define itself as greener or otherwise more ecological.

BSR emphasizes that this technology reduces noise and emissions, which is a huge advantage, but the main thing for the BSR team in motorsports has been performance and their experience in racing electric karts on the track.

Before trying out electric karting, people often have many stereotypes that without noise, there can be no race, that they must be slow, that they will run out of power after five laps, and so on.

However, in reality, no athlete to date has remained indifferent. Such motorsport names as Lucas Di Grassi (FIA Formula E champion), Arthur Leclerc (F2 driver), JJ Lehto (Former F1 driver), Sebastien Loeb (9 times WRC champion), and Andreas Bakkerud (World RX driver) have all tried out the BSR's most powerful racing kart, the BSR 25kW+, which together can develop 33kW or 44Hp of power, achieving 120Nm of torque from the engine or 230Nm on the rear axle, allowing for a maximum speed of 137km/h.

These are very impressive figures, considering that the total weight of the kart does not exceed 110 kilograms, including the battery, and it can perform at maximum performance for up to 18 minutes.

Source: Blue Shock Race

Blue Shock Race prides itself on being a technology company, with a team of 40 engineers, mechanics, and other specialists working to solve problems and produce the most advanced and powerful low-voltage applications, such as go-karts, in-house.

The company has set highly ambitious goals, one of which is that its technology can achieve all of its performance metrics with only air cooling, without the need for additional fans or liquid cooling. This also makes their technology lighter and simpler to install on a kart, requiring practically zero knowledge and only one person to set up in 15-30 minutes.

As the team's CEO says, "Genius is simplicity, but not all simplicity is genius," and with this motto, the team's engineers already dominate the electric go-kart industry, organizing championships in 13 countries, from Japan and Korea to Europe and even Mexico. So where do their magic and power come from?

Initially, the BSR team used standard and affordable components and materials available on the market. Each engineer's work had to be financially justifiable in the market so that it could be purchased for a specific niche at a reasonable cost.

Later, understanding the importance of each component in terms of power, energy, and temperature categories, the BSR team began to improve each component separately, starting with the battery, which is where the greatest progress is possible and is the foundation for everything.

If the battery can provide high power for a long time and is easily manageable, then it is worth solving the rest. With this approach, from the battery to the motor, control, software, and wiring, the BSR team has created the most powerful electric go-karts on the planet and has used this knowledge to create classes for all age groups, including the 7kW Children's kart, the 18kW Junior kart, and the 25kW Pro athlete-class kart.

Source: Blue Shock Race

With ambitious goals and a powerful team, the Blue Shock Race (BSR) has already taken steps to develop electric motorcycles and create battery energy storage systems. However, their biggest project to date is the 9B Franchise, a multi-functional entertainment center that can generate up to 10 gigawatts of electric energy and provide charging for up to 200 electric vehicles per day. It incorporates ten of the latest technologies and features an indoor go-kart track with impressive energy efficiency.

The company's ambitions are massive, and the go-kart industry was just the first step in building a smart team, showcasing technological possibilities, and addressing global energy and electric mobility issues. BSR's growth in recent years has been rapid, with sales and order delivery increasing by over 300% in just two years.

Knowing that the next 1000 unicorn companies will be in the technology industry within the next decade, Blue Shock Race has the technological and intellectual capacity to become one of the youngest technology unicorns within the next 5-10 years.