Formula E, the class of electric-powered auto racing, has just revealed digital images of their new model which will be used for 3 seasons of racing from 2018-2019. This “Gen2” model capitalizes on its previous versions with advanced battery and electric engine capabilities. It comes with nearly double the energy capacity with twice the amount of traveling distances. E-vehicles in the realm of professional racing was off to a slow start because many experts knew that the tech was still in early stages of development. Andrew Moseman told Popular Mechanics in July of 2017 that, “On the track, just as they are on the road, electric cars are a work in progress.” Still, within its 4 years of operation, Formula E has steadily made improvements to their electric vehicle technology. Formula E Founder and CEO, Alejandro Agag, is confident that these changes will position electric vehicles in racing to be taken more seriously. Formula E plans to reveal Gen2 to the public on March 6th at the Geneva Motor Show.
This car represents the future of racing. When we started Formula E, our goal was to break the mould and challenge the status quo – bringing a revolution to motorsport. This next generation car represents that revolution.”
-Formula E CEO & Founder Alejandro Agag
Other Racing E-Vehicles to Look out For
Roborace
This international racing e-vehicle manufacturer revealed their new autonomous car at CES 2018. Weighing over 2,000 pounds and stretching nearly 16 feet in length, the vehicle hits max speeds of 200 miles per hour. It comes with a Nvidia Drive PX2 circuit board that can process up to 24 trillion AI protocols per second. Moreover, once they upgrade to its newest chip, Xavier, Roborace’s vehicle will have 9 billion AI transistors. Company Chief Creative Officer, Rod Chong, told Venture Beat that: “We see now that there’s this mass movement toward intelligent driving and autonomous vehicles. Our aim is to develop a platform, an entertainment event and media platform, that can be used to promote these technologies and push development through competition and challenges.” Roborace plans to have the engineering done on their e-vehicle by the end of May or early June of this year.
Faraday Future
Los Angeles-based e-vehicle startup, Faraday Future, is committed to create smart electric cars and first collaborated with Dragon Racing Team to partake in Formula E back in 2016. They have since dropped out of the arrangement due to funding and focused on technical and engineering aspects of their e-vehicles. They recently selected 3 people to test drive their FF 91 model in CES 2018 that could jump from 0-60 mph in less than 3 seconds. With a 378-mile range and a 130-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion pack, Faraday Future claims it has over 1,000 horsepower under the hood. They’ve just opened a new HQ location in Southern California to hopefully get their company and innovative e-vehicles back on track and through the finish line.
Is Electric Vehicle Racing the Future of Entertainment?
As we move towards a much more environmentally conscious future, conventional motor vehicles are attempting to integrate more eco-friendly approaches. In addition, national and global leaders are pushing initiatives to remove combustion-based vehicles all together. California wants to have over 4 million vehicles to be electric by 2030 through a combination of incentives, investments and policies. Other regions from around the world are approaching this issue more aggressively. Norway wants to be completely electric by 2025 along with Germany and India setting their milestone for 2030. Formula E and others electric car producers are catering to a future that is slowly on the horizon where e-vehicles will be the standard and emission-based autos are a thing of the past.
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