EV Cup electric racing series delayed until 2012

The EV Cup, the world's first racing series exclusively featuring zero-emission electric vehicles, will now start in the United States in November rather than in the UK this summer as originally planned. The series will start with two race events in California, at Laguna Seca in November and at Auto Club Speedway in December before a full series launch in 2012.

Explaining the reason for the change, Sylvain Filippi, Managing Director of the EV Cup, said: "The EV world is developing extremely quickly with technical advances happening almost on a daily basis. The requirements for safety aspects and the delivery schedule for race cars was not going to allow sufficient time for testing. We need to ensure that we are absolutely ready and have everything exactly right before we start.

"The interest in the EV Cup has been fantastic, especially in the US which is why we wanted to keep our two race events there this year. We plan to begin the full series early in 2012 and will expect to start with races in the US again before coming back to Europe for races here. It was a difficult decision to make but we believe it is the best way to move forward. We have notified all circuits concerned."