Well, looks like karting is the next field of motorsport to go electric, at least if the students from the SEAT Apprentice School have their way. These youngsters have built a fully functioning electric kart and it has already seen competitive action where it finished a very respectable second place. 

The team entered their electric kart in the Kart Academy at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit in Montmeló and performed extremely well for a prototype, beating almost all of the petrol-powered competition. This is a feather in cap not just for the students, but also for their professors and SEAT Apprentice School in general. They have recognized the genius of these kids and provided them with testing facilities prior to the Barcelona race.

The student-built electric kart features a 5.5 kW engine and is equipped with a 48V battery. Apart from the electric power, the 1.74 metres long and 1.36 metres wide go kart performs like a regular kart, having gone through braking, accelerating, endurance and slalom trails with flying colors. The students also scooped the ‘Industry’ award for mid-degree students presented by FP Emprèn, an organisation which rewards vocational training schools in and around Barcelona.

According to Laura Carnicero, the head of training at SEAT and director of the Apprentice School “the success of this electric kart project shows that the School teaches the necessary technological skills for the automotive industry of the future, enabling the students to become entrepreneurial, competitive professionals.”