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Formula E season suspended due to coronavirus fears
FIA, the organizing body behind motor sport and Formula E have decided to suspend this year's racing season for up to two months. In response to concerns about managing the spread of COVID-19, the organizations have said that pausing the season was the "most responsible course of action." The direct result of this is the cancellation of planned races in Paris, Seoul, while the Jakarta E-Prix was cancelled two days prior.
Mercedes unveils its first Formula E race car
Mercedes-Benz said it would participate in Formula E this year, and now you know what it'll bring to the track. The tri-star badge has unveiled its first racer for the all-electric league, the EQ Silver Arrow 01 (no real relation to the Silver Arrow concept), and it's clear it will at least be competitive. The machine will pump out up to 340HP during qualifiers and in FanBoost mode (272HP in normal racing, 306HP in attack mode), and hit 62MPH in a brisk 2.8 seconds. There's a 52kWh battery to keep it humming throughout the entire race.
BBC will broadcast every Formula E race this season
The BBC may have lost Formula 1 coverage years ago due to budget limits, but it's making up for that in style. The broadcaster has reached a deal to air every race of Formula E's 2018-2019 season in the UK, starting with the December 15th race in Saudi Arabia. In other words, it'll be very easy to follow the electric racing league if you live in the country. This is also important for exposure -- availability on a free-to-air TV network could introduce Formula E to people who otherwise wouldn't know it exists.
Jaguar's next-gen Formula E race car packs more power
The next wave of Formula E cars is finally trickling out, and it's clear they're considerably more exciting this season. Panasonic Jaguar Racing has unveiled the next generation of its racer, the I-Type 3, and it's a dramatic improvement even compared to Jag's last outing. The new machine is 25 percent more powerful than its predecessor without a significant change of weight, producing as much as 250kW (330HP) with a 0-62MPH time of 2.8 seconds. That's important when the league is introducing an "attack mode" that boosts the power to 225kW when a driver just has to overtake a rival.
BMW will unveil its Formula E racer next week
The fifth season of the Formula E championship is scheduled to start on December 15th in Saudi Arabia, and it will be the first one where BMW participates as an official manufacturer. While all of the cars will use the same next-generation Formula E chassis designed by Spark Racing, the components inside (electronics, inverters, gearboxes and motors) and livery are up to the teams. For this BMW iFE.18 -- last seen while testing in Spain this spring -- the company said engineers who worked on drive components for its i3 collaborated with its racing team, in a way that should allow information to flow from the track to the street (and vice versa). We'll find out more about how it looks and works when it's officially unveiled on September 14th.
Audi’s real-life ‘Gran Turismo’ car will race at Formula E
Audi originally created the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo for the PlayStation 4, exclusively for virtual racing. But now the company is building the vehicle as a fully fledged, operational concept car. The electric e-tron Vision Gran Turismo will compete in Formula E, starting with the race in Rome on Saturday, April 14th.
Nissan’s debut Formula E design is inspired by the Doppler effect
It's hard to believe that Nissan, which sold more EVs last year than Tesla and every other automaker, has yet to race in Formula E. However, Nissan announced late last year that it would become the first Japanese automaker to join the electric-racing circuit for the 2018-19 season. Now, at the Geneva Motor Show, it has unveiled its season 5 Formula E car with a striking "Doppler-effect" color scheme and all-new powertrain package.
Formula E's Montreal race cancelled over 'financial fiasco'
Formula E may be increasing acceptance of electric racing and EVs in general, but it has faced plenty of problems between bleeding cash (it lost $39.4 million US in the year ending July 2016) and races being moved or pulled in Brazil, Russia and the UK. And now, those problems just got magnified. Montreal has canceled its portion of Formula E after Mayor Valérie Plante's administration learned that the previous administration of Denis Coderre had committed up to $35 million CAD for the July 2018 race. Plante's team had only wanted to suspend the 2018 race to consider its options (such as moving from downtown to an established racetrack), but killed the race outright after Formula E said that a pause wasn't acceptable.
Nissan is joining Formula E
Nissan has made big strides in its push for electrification by unveiling two new zero-emission concept vehicles and announcing its plans to join Formula E racing from the 2018-2019 season. At the Tokyo Motor Show the brand showed off the IMx all-electric crossover, which offers fully autonomous operation and a range of more than 600 kilometers, and the Leaf NISMO, which brings a hefty dose of racing technology to the company's flagship electric car. According to Nissan, this concept boasts better aerodynamic performance and less lift.
Jaguar plans a production EV racing series for 2018
To date, watching a full-fledged EV racing series has meant watching custom-built Formula E race cars. They're great to watch, but not exactly reflective of what you can drive on the road. Jaguar aims to fix that. It's launching the first production-based electric vehicle race series, the I-Pace eTrophy, as a support series for Formula E in late 2018. It'll run on the same tracks as Formula E, but it'll rely on (what else?) a track-optimized version of the upcoming I-Pace SUV. Up to 20 drivers will take part in each race in an "arrive and drive" package -- they'll need an international racing license, but Jaguar and the FIA will take care of vehicles and support.
Williams redesigns the chassis for lighter and stronger EVs
There is frequently a trickle-down from the world of high-end motor racing through to the cars on sale at your local dealership (and refrigerators). Which is why the latest project to emerge from Williams Advanced Engineering is so exciting for the future of EVs. The F1 company is showing off its lightweight electric car chassis that's designed to make electric rides lighter, safer and greener.
Porsche takes its racing heritage to Formula E
Porsche is well aware of the performance potential of EVs, having committed in 2015 to the Mission E sports car and, more recently to a high-powered charging network. That now applies to the motorsports side, the company announced that it's forsaking pistons to join the Formula E racing circuit starting in the 2019/20 seaso. "Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E road car program," Porsche AG's Michael Steiner said in a statement.
Mercedes-Benz will join Formula E in 2019
Last October, Mercedes-Benz announced that it had reserved a spot in the Formula E racing championship for the 2018/19 season and today it revealed that it would officially be entering the competition during the 2019/20 season. To do so, the automaker will be leaving another competition, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), in order to focus on Formula E. In the 18 years it has competed in the DTM, Mercedes-Benz has won a slew of drivers', team and manufacturer titles. "Our years in the DTM will always be held high as a major chapter in the motorsport history of Mercedes," said head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff in a statement.
Fox broadcasts Formula E's historic NYC races starting July 15th
Formula E is about to make history by bringing racing back to New York City, and you'll have plenty of chances to tune in... though it's not always live. Fox Sports (the league's official broadcaster) has detailed a coverage schedule for the two Brooklyn races on the weekend, including the pre-race build-up. Everything starts on July 15th at 6:30PM, when FS2 and SDD will rebroadcast the round 9 race's qualifying results. You'll see the race itself an hour later, at 7:30PM. Round 10 qualifying will air 11AM on July 16th. The real fireworks start at 12:30PM on the 16th -- that's when the pre-race (and half an hour later, the race itself) broadcasts live on TV. Both races will livestream online through Fox Sports Go, though you'll need a TV subscription to take advantage of internet viewing.
Formula E's next-generation cars get their first concept shots
The all-electric Formula E race series is set to make some high-profile moves this season. With a big race in Brooklyn and at least one major entrant ditching the fossil-fueled Le Mans races, electric racing is gaining more and more credibility as the sport progresses. To keep the vehicles at the center of it all progressing as well, Spark Racing Technologies has unveiled its plans for next season's official Formula E cars.
Formula E drivers battled simulator pros in a million-dollar e-race
With $1 million on the line, cheering crowds and drivers from the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, the inaugural Visa Vegas e-race did a good job of conveying at least some of the spectacle of a physical motor rally. Held on the final day of CES 2017, the competition saw 30 competitors take to the tracks in a race that was streamed on Twitch, with a live audience numbering in the hundreds. The spectators, a mix of fans and corporate sponsors, cheered, winced and applauded the challengers, which included 20 professional Formula E racers and the world's 10 best simulator drivers.
Red Bull's 2018 rallycross cup is getting an EV class
Off-road racing is going electric with the announcement that Red Bull is adding an EV class to its Global Rallycross events. The United States Auto Club will help serve as the governing body for the circuit, but aside from that bit and news that this won't take place until the 2018 season, little else is known. The energy drink purveyor/space jump funder says that this will exist alongside gas-powered events and "will never replace the current formula." The Verge notes that as of now, there aren't any manufacturers or drivers onboard, either. Maybe Audi will sign on. After all, it just backed out of the FIA World Endurance Championship in favor of Formula E.
Audi drops Le Mans in favor of Formula E
Here's an unusual turn of events: Audi is dropping its best-known presence in motorsports. The car maker is terminating its FIA World Endurance Championship commitment, which includes 24-hour Le Mans races, in favor of a Formula E factory-backed team. If you ask executives, it's about reflecting long-term goals. Audi's regular cars are going electric in ever-larger numbers -- when its race cars are "technological spearheads," they have to go electric as well. The company already has a partnership in the league, but it'll have technical involvement from 2017 onward.
Mercedes grabs a spot on the Formula E grid from 2018
Mercedes is set to become the latest in a long line of traditional car makers entering the world of Formula E. The company confirmed today that it's signed an agreement to reserve a spot on the grid of the electric racing championship from the 2018/19 season. With the all-electric series set to expand from 10 teams to 12 in season five, Mercedes can now decide whether it will take one of the two new available openings.
BMW partners with a Formula E racing team
BMW has already dabbled in Formula E between an i3 medical car and an i8 safety car, but it's ready to commit to the electric racing league in a much bigger way. The German brand has unveiled plans to "cooperate closely" with the Andretti Formula E team over two seasons. It's primarily promising engineering and resource sharing, but BMW has greater ambitions: it's studying the methodology of the league to consider the possibility of "works involvement" (that is, direct operation of a team) in the 2018-2019 season.
