Hybrid hypercars hit the race track at the Daytona International Speedway
Yahoo Finance autos reporter Pras Subramanian discusses how EV and hybrid vehicles are creeping into high-performance racing.
Video Transcript
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- All right, sticking with electrification, you saw a new class of race cars at Daytona this weekend. What do we know about this?
PRAS SUBMARANIAN: Yeah, Dave, at Daytona the 24-hour race a big deal there, a new era of hypercars there, racing cars here. These cars are actually hybrid powered cars, Acura, Cadillac, BMW, and Porsche all competing in this new class, super fast cars, really kind of high tech. You kind of hear them in the pit lane and actually going all electric quietly, then they fire up the engine and they get going anyway.
I talked to Cadillac's global head, Rory Harvey, about these cars, about how that hybrid tech trickles down into road cars, but also what's the reaction been to the brand actually kind of going pushing forward full EVs. And he spoke to dealers and also customers about that. And here's what he had to say.
RORY HARVEY: Depending upon where dealers sit as an example, some areas EV adoption is much more progressive than others. There's no doubt that EV adoption is happening. I guess it's a question as to how quick and where. But our dealers are really excited. We had them all together in San Francisco last year. We showed them our product portfolio through to 2025. Most of the feedback that we got from our dealer partners was exceptional. As an example, we measured their responses, and on the product portfolio going forward on a rating out of 6, they gave us 5.9, so they're super pumped up, super excited.
If you looked at last year, we really did have a solid year. So if you exclude Tesla and you look at the traditional luxury brands, Cadillac was the fastest growing traditional luxury brand here in the US with 13.9% growth year on year. It was a challenging year the year before, but it was a challenging year for the industry and for all of our competitors. So we were super pleased with the foundations that we were able to build there.
PRAS SUBMARANIAN: So 14% growth year over year there for Cadillac. Rory also did tell me that they have a new car coming out, a new EV coming out, in the first half of this year and another one in the back half of the year, so two big kind of announcements coming up for them.
- Are they going to get on an F1 team, though? That's the big question in my world with Andretti Autosport. They really want in. They have the financial backing, Guggenheim, I think, covering the 200 million. You think they get in?
PRAS SUBMARANIAN: Yeah, I mean, I asked them about that. And they said that entrance is sort of like it's up to the FIA and Formula 1 to admit them. But he said that we are very excited about that. Cadillac's a global brand. They sell huge in China, actually pretty big in Europe too. So they really want to get on that stage with Andretti Autosport, get that F1 entry. I mean, this is a big deal for the company. And you're going to hear a lot more about that and bigger brands going to F1.
- I think it would be a great move for the sport, help with American interest, just my POV. Pras, thank you. Good stuff.
