Seriously though - there needs to be a major advancement in the breakdown temperature for insulation used for motor coils as currently motors simply overheat and fail. I would like that to happen yesterday, since an electric kart for sprint racing would be awesome for maintenance reasons. But sadly they are impossible to cool enough to last more than about 10 laps with current levels to match 2-stroke engines while hauling around the extra weight of batteries over C12.
I’m personally really excited for electric karts. Yes the noise and smell of a 2 stroke engine is a key part of karting, I feel that I would be able to leave that behind. As long as the electric karts are easy to use and durable enough (as others have mentioned here) I would love to race them.
The violence of a high powered electric motor on a kart just sounds amazing
It’s hard enough to get people to spend a few thousand to go karting. Getting a group (so you can race as a new class) to spend many times more than that for something battery powered is nearly impossible.
I really want it to work out, and at some point it will - but not quite yet.
Battery tech will have to take a significant enough leap in capability, with an inverse result in costs, to make it a viable option. It also might be somewhat boring compared to ICE racing, sheer torque & acceleration not withstanding. 4 wheel brakes would be requisite.
We’re a long way from en-masse adoption just from the power delivery challenges. But I think we’ll see it gain some legs in (higher performance type) arrive and drive soon. Arguably it’s there already.
Rotax have already moved on from their first electric “Thunder” kart to a newer model… I asked for specifics on the “improvements” on linked in… Still waiting…
Here’s the thunder. I’m not sure if it was raced much… anybody know?
I saw the new one run in Italy vs the old ones. It had to be doing 100mph at the end of the straight where a dd2 would be doing like 90. It has a radiator like a 2 stroke.
You guys should get the TopKart guys on here to explain their rig. It seems to have a tiny battery, is equally as fast, and when I saw it run I felt the motor when it came off the track and it was cool to the touch. They say it will run a full race day on one charge. I watched it get used session after session without charging, and the NASA style charging stations Rotax uses were nowhere in sight.
Edit- I just invited the TopKart guys to give some insight into this newfangled stuff
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On a related note
I’m looking forward to it . Anticipating and plannig on gathering Kart & Motor , to go along with my 125 shifter .
Battery temp is the issue in all forms of E-racing at the moment.
In FE power output is actually limited by battery discharge rate (due to temp) not capacity.
I don’t think a kart would tax any of the available industrial motors and with re-gen you shouldn’t require massive brakes to stop the mass.
Although with 4 wheel brakes it would be pretty cool to have brake balance migration to aid rotation
i would still need a pot of 2 stroke simmering by my trailer as i worked on it though 
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Wait, so whats going to happen to all the engine builders if everyone switches to electric. Are we going to get blueprinted electric motors now? lol
In the future this will he referred to as “overclocking” the kart maybe. 
hahaha thats funny. I wonder how long the rebuild intervals would be on electric karts
Zero I’d think. I assume these electric engines go till they fail. Overheating is likely an issue.
Overheating, PM magnets failing. Controllers taking a dump… Might find replacing magnets could be a preventative maintenance thing?
There’s definitely ways to tweak electric karts… but equally there’s ways to manage that too.
For the engine manufacturers, good question. In Rotax’s case they started with a bosch powertrain and then went on to develop their own, at least that’s what the verbiage says.
I’ll just leave this here and we can all imagine the potential. Electric motors are seriously wacky.
Electro-heads created some additional marketing for their program, so I’d figure I’d put this here (and probably make @Alan_Dove rage 
)
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dont get me started lol
What triggers me to be honest is the “path to F1” narrative for Karting. I’m so over it at this point.
Path to F1 is “find $7m+ over the course of 10-15 years”
That’s not sour grapes. That’s facts.
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Speed costs money, & F1 is the speediest venue, so go figure.
It should obvious to anyone who spends any time in/around racing that money is the necessity in all things racing, whether climbing the “ladder”, or just running a season.