Formula E’s Green Racing Machines Come to California

Last September, Formula E racing kicked off its inaugural season; the racing competition is visiting cities across the globe, and comes to California on 4 April, with Round 6 at Long Beach.  The organizers have high hopes that these races will not only be fun to watch, but will do good things for electric car technology, the racing business, and society as a whole.
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The all-electric Formula E series of races kicked off in Beijing.  For this first season, the championship’s 10 teams are competing in 11 races held in the heart of 10 cities, including Berlin, London, Miami, and Moscow.

As per the organization’s media kit, the official goal of the Formula E effort is to serve “as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability.”  But for Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E Holdings, the company running the races under the umbrella of the FIA (the international motorsports association that also overseas the Formula 1 races), the most exciting thing about the races is the potential of the sport to accelerate the development of electric car technology and to draw new fans to racing in general.  (Like many Silicon Valley companies, the project started during a dinner table discussion, with notes sketched out on a napkin—Agag says he unfortunately lost the napkin.)

Figuring out the rules was a bit tricky; the Formula E organizers couldn’t just duplicate the procedures established to govern gas-powered vehicles for an electric race.  For example, it’s a lot harder to swap a battery than it is to refuel.  And, because the batteries used in racecars have to discharge energy quickly in order to make the cars fast, they don’t last long at all, just half an hour, Agag said.  Initially, organizers thought they might allow teams to do a battery swap in a pit stop.  However, rules about how a battery needs to be encased to keep it from endangering the driver in a high-speed crash mean that swapping a battery takes about two hours.  That’s a long pit stop, especially when the organizers wanted each race to be a roughly one-hour event.  So, instead, Formula E drivers are simply swapping cars halfway through the race.  This isn’t as odd as it seems; Agag pointed out that in the 1950s, a Formula 1 driver experiencing mechanical problems was allowed to take a team member’s car.

Formula E teams are currently constrained in terms of the technology they can use—they race using a standard car, with standard components, and tight controls that ensure every car starts out with the same available energy in each battery.  The organizers, says Agag, do want the teams to eventually compete on technology development as well as racing strategy, because such competition drives breakthroughs.  However, he said, to keep the costs of participation reasonable, there have to be some initial constraints (by reasonable he means in the $20 million a season range, vs. $200 million and up).
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“The guy that wins the race is not the fastest guy, it’s the most clever guy who knows how to manage energy,” said Agag.

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