This year is in pole position to be the time when electric racing joins the mainstream. The Formula E championship is now in its third year and continues to grow in size and popularity. The pioneering electric single-seater series, which starts in October, will take place on street circuits in cities including Hong Kong, Marrakech, Mexico City, Berlin and New York.
Jaguar Land Rover enters the championship this year, joining the likes of Mahindra and Renault. Future championships are expected to feature teams from Audi, Mercedes and BMW.
This year also sees the launch of the Electric GT championship, which is billed as the world’s first 100% zero-emissions GT championship. The competition will feature 20 drivers and will race at circuits across Europe and the US.
Finally, if going round and round a track doesn’t appeal to you, rallycross is also set to go all-electric this year. The E/Racing series is expected to launch in October in Las Vegas and will visit five US cities through the spring of 2018.
The increase in electric vehicle (EV) racing is in sharp contrast to 2012, when Alejandro Agag launched Formula E. Critics derided the idea, labelling the electric powertrain and battery technology as unproven and the races of limited appeal. Spectators like the loud engines, the smell of fuel and the heat of motorsport. Or so the thinking went.
Those same critics now accept that electric racing is gathering momentum. Many more would admit that mainstream motorsport is playing catch up to road car development in several areas, not least electric powertrains and automation. Worse still, many in motorsport are concerned that it is failing to attract the next generation of fans, by not embracing new media technologies such as immersive virtual reality, which is being used in drone racing to enable greater spectator engagement.
Speaking at the Motorsport Industry Association’s Energy Efficient Motorsport conference in Birmingham last month, David Greenwood, professor of advanced propulsion systems at Warwick Manufacturing Group, said motorsport needs to keep pace with changes and trends among consumers and technology, to ensure that it stays engaging for spectators. Motorsport can’t lag behind mainstream cars and needs to lead product development.
“F1 with KERS in 2009 put it in the lead of technology development,” he said. “Things like heat recovery and system-level energy management can flow down into road applications. But the challenge at the moment is that we regulate out technology that you find on a £13,000 road car, and that’s making it hard to achieve that connection.”
The sport has to stay competitive and entertaining. But many would also argue that it is up to regulators to ensure that the connection between road car and track technology is maintained.
Initially, electrification of powertrains in passenger cars focused on economy and CO2 emissions and was driven by regulation. Recently, carmakers such as Tesla and BMW have focused on driveability and the performance of EVs to appeal to consumers. Arguably, the automotive sector is about to reach a tipping point where it is consumer demand driving the development of EVs, not CO2 emissions targets.
Thomas Laudenbach, head of electrics, electronics and energy systems at Audi Sport, believes motorsport still has an important role to play in communicating the appeal of EVs. He said: “Motorsport can make electrification sexy. When you see a car accelerate it is fun. Motorsport does performance applications.
“We will not have a single unique power source in the future like we’ve had in the last 100 years with the combustion engine. There will be different solutions and there is room for conventional racing and electric racing. Let’s accept that variety and make a business out of it.”
Laudenbach believes motorsport competitions should represent electric powertrains for as long as they are relevant to road cars, but technically the bigger question is still where the energy that drives the motors comes from – the energy storage. Batteries remain the key component.
Simon Holloway, commercial director for the RML Group, said that motorsport engineering firms have to embrace the pull away from traditional combustion technology. “It’s not just about the battery, it’s about how you integrate it into the whole vehicle,” he said. “We’re looking at high-performance, low-volume battery packs for motorsport use.
“There are a lot more safety and process requirements for high voltage.”
Without a doubt it is a transitional time in motorsport. The sector knows it needs to modernise and embrace new technologies to attract the next generation of fans and remain a source of engineering innovation and expertise. That requires a shift in attitudes as well as a shift in technical expertise.
But it does not need to completely abandon current race formats and internal combustion engine technology to achieve this.
Funding support for battery supply
The traditional role of motorsport as leading the development of technologies for road cars may have been partially disrupted in the case of electric powertrains, but the government is keen that the UK should not miss out on future work.
Roland Meister, head of automotive, aerospace and autonomous vehicles at research funding body Innovate UK, said that the automotive sector is “disrupting itself” and that there will be a move to more electric vehicles.
He said: “We’ve invested a lot in engine manufacturing. But the sector is changing. Battery packs are not as easily transportable as engines. It’s like shipping an engine with a full tank of fuel.
“Wherever you make the batteries in the future is where you will make the cars. So we want to attract global manufacturers to set up in the UK.”
There is only a handful of companies that develop and supply batteries in the UK, such as Johnson Matthey in Milton Keynes and AGM Batteries in Thurso. None is manufacturing at a large scale. But the research base is strong.
There are three types of battery cells: cylinder, prismatic and pouches. The government wants to ensure that the UK has supply chain capability in all three types. Meister sees this flexibility as crucial to facilitate car manufacturers in the future. “It’s a gap we have to fill,” he said.
The next major Innovate UK funding competition for the automotive sector happens in June and is for niche vehicles. The competition is aimed at small-volume manufacturers, typically motorsport firms looking to develop technologies for other sectors, and £2 million is available for projects in areas such as batteries, power electronics, lightweight materials, manufacturing processes, and digital technology in manufacturing.