Kristoffersson Motorsport acquires first RX1e kits

With the future of the FIA World Rallycross Championship already decided in favor of electric power, it was a question of time to see the teams make the first moves to secure programs for the 2022 season, and Kristoffersson Motorsport did a bold first step by getting three out of the 14 initial units made available by KREISEL.

The Arvika-based outfit opted to not field a car for Johan Kristoffersson to defend his crown in World RX, which made the Swede join 2020 rivals from EKS JC, but choosing to prioritize the plans for the electric future of rallycross didn’t mean they were totally inactive, as Johan Kristoffersson had a last hurrah in the teams’ tried and trusted Volkswagen Polo RX prepared in house, which propelled Kristoffersson to a title he still needed to achieve, which was the RallyX Nordic title, with a campaign made mostly of dominant performances.

Although their Polo RX may be back for another go in RallyX Nordic, with the Scandinavian competition accepting electric vehicles alongside the internal combustion cars, just like the 5Nations British RX, a 2022 in the North may be used more as a competitive test to extract more from the new electric vehicles than to actually aim for a committed title defense.

The new RX1e era was initially conceived to go alongside the gasoline powered supercars, but with the project being delayed in a year, the final decision was to make the top class fully electric, with KREISEL offering the possibility of converting the current chassis to have RX1e powertrains along with acquiring a full new car, so Tommy Kristoffersson can actually opt to put one of the kits in its old Polo, or leave it as the base car just like the others, which is currently the Skoda Fabia, which is also part of, VAG, so it wouldn’t interfere with commercial commitments with the Volkswagen dealership BAUHAUS, which sponsors KMS.

The KREISEL RX1e kit features twin motors that have 680 hp of power, around 100 hp above the current supercars, with 880 Nm of torque, which sits around the supercar figures for most models available.

Should KMS use the trio in 2022, it would the first time since 2018 that the team would go for a multi-car effort, as the Volkswagen-backed PSRX Volkswagen Sweden outfit combined Petter Solberg and Johan Kristoffersson, and gave the first two World titles for the Swede.

PHOTO: FIA World Rallycross Championship