{"id":20906,"date":"2017-07-28T15:38:32","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T19:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=20906"},"modified":"2017-08-01T15:41:53","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T19:41:53","slug":"carmakers-look-to-race-track-to-market-evs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/carmakers-look-to-race-track-to-market-evs","title":{"rendered":"Carmakers look to race track to market EVs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FormulaE_NYC2\"<\/p>\n<\/div>

Indianapolis<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 As governments from\u00a0Britain<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0California<\/a>\u00a0force the auto market to electrification, Volkswagen and other manufacturers are looking to auto racing to market electric vehicles to a reluctant U.S. public.<\/p>\n

Formula E, which features open-wheel cars powered by batteries, held its first race in New York City this July. It will be followed by an all-electric 2018-2019 Global Rallycross series (\u201ce-GRC\u201d for short) \u2014 a full-season of production-based EV racing similar to the popular, rowdy\u00a0Red Bull Global RallyCross<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are betting the farm on electric,\u201d says Greg Lucia, Director of Experiential Marketing at VW America. \u201cWe are making things differently now. Electric suits our product. And e-GRC is a great way to showcase it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For VW, a move to electrification is an opportunity to reinvent itself to a new generation of buyers \u2014 and race fans \u2014 after the disastrous Dieselgate cheating scandal mired the German company in months of negative publicity.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Manufacturers like VW hope to avoid the mistakes of the last 20 years when they bet the farm on diesel as the politically preferred fuel of the future \u2014 only to see governments reverse course.<\/p>\n

Michael Andretti, son of the legendary Mario and an IndyCar champion himself, is now CEO of Andretti Autosport, one of the world\u2019s premier racing teams with front-running cars in IndyCar and Global Rallycross. In the midst of this high-powered, gas-fueled racing success, however, Andretti sees the writing on the wall for the internal combustion engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance is banning the combustion engine by 2040, Germany is talking about 2030, and Norway has already announced 2025. It\u2019s not just racing \u2014 you won\u2019t be able to sell a car unless its electric, hydrogen or some other alternative to fossil fuel,\u201d he said here in his Indy headquarters. \u201cIt\u2019s coming whether you like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end Andretti is shifting his business toward battery-juiced series like e-GRC and Formula E. \u201cThis is the future of racing,\u201d he told\u00a0Bloomberg in New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other manufacturers like Honda are taking a look at e-GRC for 2018 and most European luxury players are lining up for Formula E. In a major development this week Porsche announced it is leaving LeMans endurance racing to concentrate on the electric series.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormula E is turning a corner,\u201d said Andretti. \u201cThe manufacturers are getting involved. There is really a ton of interest. BMW is getting involved in a bigger way \u2014 Mercedes, Jaguar, and\u00a0Audi has announced<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s taken over a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manufacturer interest may help jump-start public interest.\u00a0TV viewership has been modest<\/a>\u00a0and just 15,000 spectators turned out for the New York City ePrix in America\u2019s largest metropolitan area. The Detroit Grand Prix at\u00a0Belle Isle typically delivers about 100,000<\/a>\u00a0spectators.<\/p>\n

The EV racing push is similar to automaker efforts to promote the last major government-approved technology to phase out the gasoline engine: diesel.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In the mid-1990s, European officials identified diesel as the best fuel to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and wean the world from Mideast oil. \u201cDiesel looked like the perfect solution because it required less refinement than gasoline \u2014 and used the same filling station infrastructure,\u201d says Kelley Blue Book Auto Analyst Karl Brauerr.<\/p>\n

European governments taxed diesel less to encourage its sale and the policy \u2014 along with the engineering breakthrough of turbocharged, \u201cclean diesel\u201d powerplants \u2014\u00a0met with rapid success as diesel<\/a>\u00a0went from just 10 percent of European sales in the \u201990s to a majority of 55 percent in 2012. Despite international pressure, the U.S. was an outlier in transitioning to diesel \u2014 refusing to give it tax favor. Touting diesel as the future of racing, turbo-diesel Audi and Peugot race cars dominated the 24 Hour of LeMans from 2006-14 as well as U.S. endurance racing.<\/p>\n

Then political enthusiasm turned to regret. Over the last few years, governments have condemned diesel particulate emissions while investigating German automakers for cheating on toughened emissions standards.\u00a0In its announcement this week that it would ban new gas, gas-hybrid and diesel engines in 2040,\u00a0<\/a>Britain\u2019s environmental secretary cited a Royal College of Physicians report fingering diesel policies as contributing to 40,000 deaths a year in England alone.<\/p>\n

EV advocate John Voelcker, editor of GreenCarReports.com, says governments have it right this time in pushing electrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cZero-emission battery vehicles will draw on grid power that will decarbonize over time,\u201d says Voelcker, pointing to plans in Europe to convert utilities to wind and solar power. France\u2019s gas engine ban depends on EVs charging off carbon-free nuclear power.<\/p>\n

KBB\u2019s Brauer however, questions the continued determination by governments to dictate technological change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that governments might not want EVs in 20 years either because of all the side effects,\u201d he says listing the uncertainties of grid power sources, the environmental impact of mining lithium for batteries and the recycling of used batteries. He says the lack of EV charging infrastructure also lags diesel\u2019s initial promise \u2014 though Voelcker believes customers will mostly recharge at home.<\/p>\n

Whatever Europe\u2019s EV plans, Michael Andretti says that, like diesel, he expects \u201cAmericans will be the last on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Industry insiders say they have no knowledge of similar U.S. or California mandates to phase out the gas engine. Green Car\u2019s Voelcker, however, says California has concluded that its mandates forcing manufacturers to sell a growing percentage of zero-emission vehicles (EV or hydrogen) by 2025 puts the state on a path to be virtually gas-free in 20 years.<\/p>\n

VW\u2019s Lucia is confident that U.S. consumers will adopt EVs \u2014 regulations or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future of our business is not in oil and filter changes. It\u2019s going to be in computer upgrades. What Tesla is doing now, VW will dwarf by 2025,\u201d he says. \u201cAs charging becomes more efficient and as more stations become available, consumers understand access will be solved by 2025. It\u2019s accessibility that the market will drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racing is expected to play a key role as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur e-Golf<\/a>\u00a0will be a great platform for racing,\u201d says Lucia. \u201cCustomers will identify it as an e-GRC vehicle. They will be be able to see the e-Golf outperforming other vehicles on the track, and (then) actually purchase that product based on that technology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indianapolis\u00a0\u2014 As governments from\u00a0Britain\u00a0to\u00a0California\u00a0force the auto market to electrification, Volkswagen and other manufacturers are looking to auto racing to market electric vehicles to a reluctant U.S. public. Formula E, which features open-wheel cars powered by batteries, held its first race in New York City this July. It will be followed by an all-electric 2018-2019 Global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20909,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20906\/revisions\/20909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}