A technology transfer from the racing car to everyday car life is propagated in almost every racing series. In the Formula E does it actually take place. The series actually has a different purpose.
For eight years now, Formula E has been doing its laps primarily in the world's major cities. The current season ends next weekend. In terms of sport, the only series for open, electrically powered racing cars is exciting. On the last race weekend, eight drivers can theoretically become world champions.
Larger range now possible
Formula E was not founded to establish another racing series, but to advertise electric mobility. Since barely a week goes by without another car manufacturer announcing that it will only produce e-cars in a very few years, the advertising order has now more or less been done. “Not quite,” says Gerd Mäuser, team manager at Jaguar and previously responsible for marketing at the British brand. “It was and is always about positive emotions. We want to show that e-mobility is fun, also in the classic sense of driving a car, and we want to show that the technology is suitable for everyday use. "
In the early years of the series, the drivers had to change cars at half-time because the battery only lasted half a race, but the racers are now driving through it. Battery technology has developed further, which you can also see in the electric cars on the road. Now it's more about loading. Are there enough columns available? How do I stand there? Questions that potential buyers of e-cars ask themselves and that the racing series also addresses. “From the season after next, the drivers will stop charging. We're changing the size of the battery so that you can't drive right through with one charge and therefore have to come to the box to recharge, ”explains Mäuser.
How long it will take, whether you recharge 30 seconds, a minute or maybe only 15 seconds, is not yet certain. In any case, the electricity will flow at the same speed for all racing cars, because that is a principle of the series: The essential technology up to the battery is the same for everyone. There are differences between the software and the inverter. The electricity could charge the battery with up to 650 kW, but how much will actually be used afterwards is still open.
Charging should replace refueling
In racing practice, the additional stop will increase the teams' tactical possibilities. Above all, however, it conveys the message “Charging is quick” and is intended to relieve e-car skeptics of the fear of long stops. "If, for example, the racing cars draw enough electricity in one minute to complete the race, for the audience it is similar to a refueling stop in a race with conventional cars," says Mäuser, describing the idea. "You don't deduce from this that a car can be filled at the petrol station in seconds". But you should understand: In the end, it is just as fast as normal refueling.
While the emotional aspect of racing electric cars, the battery size and, in the future, recharging can be viewed as marketing tools, there is also a technical aspect that brings racing and series closer together. Where essential technical components are the same, right down to engine performance, engineers have to work on the seemingly small things in order to generate an advantage. "We are more efficient than series cars and we can bring the know-how from racing car development into series production," says Mäuser.
From 2025 only cars for Formula E
Generally speaking, the electric motor, with an efficiency of around 90 percent, is already an efficient engine. Around 90 percent of the energy used is actually converted into usable power. In the case of combustion engines, it is only around 40 percent. “In the racing car, we achieve an efficiency of 95 percent simply by developing the control system. We have already benefited from this for the series, ”explains Mäuser. In fact, the know-how from the racing team has flowed into the control of the electric series Jaguar I-Pace. Its first technical uplift brought seven percent more range with otherwise the same technology in 2019 only through software development. "All data from the races and the development of the racing car are immediately available to our development engineers in the series," says Gerd Mäuser.
In the current model range of the British, the I-Pace and the PHEV models F-Pace and E-PACE benefit from the technology transfer. But Jaguar has announced that it will only build electric models from 2025. It should help if the brand is already being thought together with e-models through its involvement in Formula E. Probably not a bad idea for a company whose image is based on classic sports cars.