{"id":22703,"date":"2018-08-15T11:41:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T15:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=22703"},"modified":"2018-08-15T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T15:41:04","slug":"electric-car-makers-amped-on-formula-e-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/electric-car-makers-amped-on-formula-e-racing","title":{"rendered":"Electric-car makers amped on Formula E racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fe<\/p>\n

New York<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Like the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle, the New York City E-Prix’s circuit\u00a0is laid out on the public streets of Brooklyn,\u00a0with Manhattan skyscrapers forming a majestic backdrop across the river. The world’s top drivers come here to race state-the-of-art, open-wheel cars at the limit just inches from\u00a0makeshift barriers and adoring fans.<\/p>\n

The difference is the cars\u00a0barely make a sound.<\/p>\n

Formula E is\u00a0the world’s premier battery-powered auto racing series\u00a0with 11 stops around the globe, including the streets of Hong Kong, Paris, Rome\u00a0and New York.<\/p>\n

As some governments consider outlawing the internal combustion engine, manufacturers from Audi to Jaguar to Nissan are rushing to the\u00a0new race series to accelerate battery development and\u00a0excite potential buyers about electric vehicles. Like other race series\u00a0that have tried to capitalize on government trends\u00a0\u2014\u00a0like ethanol in America (IndyCar) or\u00a0diesel in Europe (LeMans) \u2014 Formula E is the new\u00a0epicenter of alternative powertrain technology transfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, like a lot of other brands think that electrification is the key to the future,\u201d said Jaguar racing manager James Barclay. Jaguar is using Formula E to promote its\u00a0$70,000\u00a0I-Pace crossover EV. \u201cYes, regulation changes are driving it \u2013 in many city centers in the future you won\u2019t be able to bring in internal-combustion engine\u00a0cars. But also, there is a consumer that wants a car that is sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Formula E series\u00a0\u2014\u00a0despite no major TV contract and relatively small spectator interest compared to louder, faster cars in\u00a0NASCAR and Formula One\u00a0\u2014\u00a0is attracting major corporate investment.<\/p>\n

That investment comes\u00a0not just from the usual suspects of European and U.S. auto racing,\u00a0but from emerging economies like\u00a0India and China,\u00a0the latter having displaced the U.S. as the biggest global auto market and which is soon expected to severely restrict gas-powered automobiles.<\/div>\n

Mahindra, a pioneer in Indian electric\u00a0cars in the\u00a0world\u2019s fastest-growing car market<\/a>, brought its Formula E\u00a0team to New York.<\/p>\n

“We are reaching a perfect storm as … both regulation and technology see EVs as a viable option,” says\u00a0Dilbagh Gill, Mahindra’s Formula E\u00a0team manager.\u00a0“Mahindra is headquartered in India, and India is looking at stopping the registration of gas-engine\u00a0vehicles by 2030. That\u2019s just 12 years from now, so we need to get on with development now.”<\/p>\n

The 10-team series \u2014\u00a0\u00a0each with two entries \u2014\u00a0is a who’s-who of\u00a0manufacturers including Audi, Jaguar, Mahindra and Renault. BMW, Mercedes, Nissan\u00a0and Porsche will join over the next two years. If they are not managing their own programs, then they are supported by some of the world’s top\u00a0race teams including Andretti (Mario’s son Michael) and Penske (Roger’s son Jay).<\/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 it’s electric, hydrogen or some other alternative to fossil fuel,\u201d Andretti\u00a0told The News last year.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s coming whether you like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conspicuously missing from\u00a0Formula E is\u00a0an American manufacturer. Only Ford has expressed an interest. A Ford spokesperson said the company has been watching the series closely, but has no plans to join.<\/p>\n

With EVs a small, expensive U.S. market niche\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u00a0and no federal mandate to eliminate gas power\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Detroit makers\u00a0are avoiding the e-racing trend, just as they bypassed diesel development once pushed by global governments. Detroit racing dollars continue to go where the buyers are\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to gas-burning NASCAR, IndyCar\u00a0and drag racing.<\/p>\n

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Quiet riot: With only the whine of electric motors, Formula E racers negotiate the Brooklyn street course.\u00a0Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The brainchild of Paris-based motorsports governing body\u00a0F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA for short), Formula E began four years ago as a way to bring emerging EV technology to consumers and as a competitive platform for manufacturer development.<\/p>\n

Where IndyCar and Formula run some of their events on street circuits, all Formula E\u00a0races take place in cities. The commitment is part of the series’\u00a0ethic to be greener by bringing racing to population centers (rather than fans burning gas to drive to remote road courses). No parking is offered, encouraging\u00a0fans to take public transportation and walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormula E really throws out the racing rulebook,\u201d says Jaguar\u2019s Barclay. \u201cWe are racing in city centers like New York. It brings motorsports a new audience \u2013 it\u2019s the most accessible motorsport in the world and brings EV technology to the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is undeterred by the minuscule market for electric cars\u00a0in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. has the potential to be the largest EV market in the world,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was in many ways the first to adopt electric tech\u00a0\u2014\u00a0they are ahead of the rest of the world with Tesla and other electric vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fornula E ethic dovetails with city plans to ban gas-powered cars. Paris, which has hosted Formula E\u00a0for four years on streets just east of the Eiffel Tower, occasionally bans vehicles on Sundays \u2013 with a total ban on gas-powered cars by 2030. Host Mexico City will ban diesel cars \u2013 which governments have encouraged with low taxes \u2013 by 2025.<\/p>\n

On Brooklyn\u2019s circuit along the East River, the pack of 20 cars whooshed\u00a0by, with only the whine of their electric motors. Unlike the Detroit Grand Prix, fans converse easily in the grandstands without the 12,000-rpm wail of a V-6.<\/p>\n

Though packing 200-kWh\u00a0lithium-ion batteries \u2014 twice the capacity of a Tesla Model S P100D \u2014\u00a0\u00a0FE cars are noticeably slower than IndyCars.<\/p>\n

Around the New York City\u00a0E-Prix\u2019s narrow\u00a01.4-mile course, the average lap speed for pole position-winner Jean-Eric Vergne was 68 mph compared to the 114-mph pole by Alexander Rossi at 2.4-mile Belle Isle. While some of that is attributed to the tight track layout, the Formula E cars also have significant handicaps. Chief among these is a requirement to use one set of hard, grooved Michelin tires\u00a0\u2014 rain or shine.<\/p>\n

The tire restriction conforms with the series’ race culture to be sustainable\u00a0compared to IndyCar, which uses sticky, slick tires and goes through multiple sets in a weekend (up to 13 at Belle Isle). The Michelins limit Formula E corner speeds to 1.5 g-loads compared to IndyCar\u2019s 3.0-plus.<\/p>\n

When the Formula E cars locked up in hairpins they made\u00a0loud skidding sounds like a street car before a crash \u2013\u00a0not the brief \u201cscrunch\u201d of a soft-compound slick.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t look at Formula E as a replacement for (all) racing \u2013 but it exists in addition to it. It is very different.,\u201d says Bobby Rahal, IndyCar racing legend-turned Jaguar dealer. He is race team manager of a Formula E support series that will feature the Jaguar I-Pace EVs next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a dealer,\u201d continues Rahal, \u201cwe see more and more people thinking about electrified vehicles. The more they understand the benefits, the more interest there is. There is no doubt that hybrid-electric will take a bigger and bigger place in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Energy-guzzling Formula E\u00a0suffers from the same battery drawbacks as production EVs. Managing battery life over the NYC E-Prix\u2019s 43-lap race is crucial (the Detroit GP is 70 laps). So inefficient were this year\u2019s batteries that each driver had to change to a second car after about 20 laps.<\/p>\n

But next season, when the series debuts its second-gen, 250-kWh battery, a single car will be able to go the distance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this kind of compressed, performance-driven technology advance that has attracted manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relevance of Formula One is not really there anymore,\u201d says Jaguar\u2019s Barclay explaining why Jaguar ignored F1 for Formula E. \u00a0\u201cThe technology transfer of Formula E is why you see so many manufacturers now. If you\u2019re a manufacturer, you have to be here.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Like the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle, the New York City E-Prix’s circuit\u00a0is laid out on the public streets of Brooklyn,\u00a0with Manhattan skyscrapers forming a majestic backdrop across the river. The world’s top drivers come here to race state-the-of-art, open-wheel cars at the limit just inches from\u00a0makeshift barriers and adoring fans. The difference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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\/22703"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}