Hemp fiber composites incorporated into electric racecar bodywork

Bercella Srl (Parma, Italy) recently worked with manufacturer Romeo Ferraris (Milan, Italy) to develop hemp fiber bodywork for the latest version of Romeo Ferraris’ Giulia PURE ETCR electric racecar. This follows the two companies’ work on the design and construction of carbon fiber bodywork for the first Giulia ETCR version in 2020. The hemp fiber composite vehicle competed in the PURE ETCR championship on the Pau-Arnos track the weekend of Oct. 15-17, 2021. 

Also involved in the project was materials supplier Fibertech Group (Mornago, Italy), working with fabric seller Linificio and Canapificio Nazionale (Villa d'Almè, Italy). MJ 404/100 fabric was used for select parts on the vehicle bodywork.

PURE ETCR is an electric touring cars race series begun in 2021, aiming to explore new propulsion technologies linked to the mobility of the future and with a focus on sustainability.

“We are proud to have done our part in the transition that will lead to a greener future, from which even motorsport can no longer ignore, as a laboratory of the highest level of the trends that will later constitute the road mobility of tomorrow,” Massimo Bercella, CEO of Bercella, says. “Composites constitute our corporate expertise and seeing this change towards increasingly sustainable materials and processing techniques, confirm us as pioneers of the new initiatives that represent our present and that we will have the opportunity to develop even more deeply in the future.”

Michela Cerruti, Romeo Ferraris team principal, says “We are proud to be able to announce this technical innovation for the season finale in PURE ETCR. The use of hemp fiber for some bodywork components demonstrates, on one hand, our constant search for improvements and innovations for the Giulia ETCR project and, on the other hand, the desire to offer a concrete contribution to eco-sustainability, a terrain on which motorsport itself plays an important part of its future. Here at Romeo Ferraris, we immediately decided to accept the challenge of a championship like the PURE ETCR, with fully electric cars that act as a test bed for solutions that we will soon be able to find on our everyday vehicles. In addition to this, we are proud of having developed cutting-edge materials, just like the hemp fiber on which we worked together with Bercella and Fibertech Group.”