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Extreme E reveals the car that will race across glaciers and deserts
Say hello to the Odyssey 21, an electric SUV built by Spark Racing Technology, the same company that designed and built the first and second-gen Formula E cars.
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.
Watch this EV racer go from 0-100 KPH in under two seconds
It's no secret that electric vehicles are strong performers, both on the streets and in professional racing tracks. But in case you had any doubts, a group of students from GreenTeam Uni Stuttgart have set a new world record with their battery-powered car, becoming the first ever to go from 0-100 KPH in 1.779 seconds. Once evaluated by Guinness World Records, GreenTeam Uni Stuttgart will officially have the fastest accelerating electric vehicle in the world -- the previous record was set at 1.785 seconds by the AMZ Racing Team, another Formula Student competitor, in 2014. It's quite an achievement, to say the least, so watch how it happened in the video below.
Eight manufacturers will supply Formula E with custom parts next season
The inaugural Formula E season is well underway, but already organisers are preparing for the next championship. At the moment, all 10 teams are using identical electric vehicles (EVs), but the plan is to let them tinker with the design from the 2015/16 season. Now, thanks to the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), we know the eight manufacturers that'll be contributing custom parts later this year: ABT Sportsline, Andretti, Mahindra, Motomatica, NEXTEV TCR, Renault Sport, Venturi Automobilesa and Virgin Racing Engineering.
Formula E to let teams build their own batteries and motors
Now that the first major race is out of the way, which took place in Beijing a couple of weeks ago, it's time for Formula E to look toward the future. Accordingly, CEO Alejandro Agag has revealed some interesting details ahead of the EV racing league's sophomore season, namely its plans to allow teams to build batteries and motors of their own by then. As great and exciting as Formula E is, currently all cars are using hardware from the same manufacturer, so allowing others to take part will bring it more in line with Formula 1, in which there are engines from the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault. "They could build their own whole car if they wanted. But the regulations are quite strict and they don't allow a lot of development in aerodynamics, but they do allow development in motor and battery," Agag stated. He said the idea is for Formula E to have "three or four" different companies working on motors and batteries, something that would definitely make the competition even more interesting.
'Forza 5' will be the first racing game with a Formula E electric racer
Turn 10 has just revealed that it'll bring the hum of electric power to Forza 5 with the Spark-Renault SRT-01E racing car. That'd mark the first EV from the fledgeling Formula E racing series in any game -- in fact, the actual series itself won't launch until September 13th in Beijing. The Spark-Renault SRT-01E was the first car to be homologated by the FIA for Formula E, and features a 200kW (270 bhp) motor and 888 kg (2,000 pound) curb weight. As you were likely wondering, it also produces about 80 decibels at full power -- that's a bit more than your car, but far, far less than the 140 screeching decibels of a pedal-to-the-metal Formula 1 racer. There's no word on when it'll arrive to Forza 5, but it would make sense to co-launch it with the Formula E series in Beijing next month.
Formula E's first public tests to begin in the UK on July 4th
After it completed its successful test debut at France's La Ferté Gaucher circuit late last year, the Spark-Renault SRT_01E Formula E car now has a place to call home: the UK's Donington Park. Organizers of the Formula E Championship, the world's first fully electric race series, have confirmed that the first official team tests will be hosted at the circuit, which will also serve as home for all 10 of the race crews during its inaugural season. The first public tests will be spaced intermittently between July 4th and August 19th, three weeks before the series kicks off in Beijing on September 13th. They'll be truly public too, allowing fans to attend completely free of charge. Donington's state-of-the-art facility is set to open in early May with the first car deliveries arriving a few weeks later. Once teams get their hands on the 200kw (270bhp) single-seaters, it'll only be a couple of months until all of the cars run together for the first time.
Formula E's Spark-Renault SRT_01E electric racer makes its official public debut in Las Vegas
Sure, we've already heard about Formula E's car being tested and detailed as it progresses towards its inaugural season, we haven't yet had opportunity to get cozy-like. The fledgling race series chose Las Vegas and CES 2014 to give the public its first proper demo and peek at the car and we simply couldn't miss the chance. As a primer, if you've missed the other announcements, the SRT_01E is an all-electric car producing 200kW -- that's roughly 270 HP -- with the motor, gearbox and electrics designed by McLaren, batteries and management systems by Williams, tires by Michelin, monocoque chassis by Dallara and all integrated by Renault. So what do we think? Well, with the shopping list of F1 teams above how could it not be fantastic? Of course, the proof will be in the sport's uptake as it starts its maiden season next fall. In the interim, have a listen as the car does donuts in Lucas di Grassi's -- wearing a helmet with a very similar design to his Formula 1 days -- capable hands in a parking lot in beautiful Las Vegas.
