As Formula E’s third season kicks off, car companies rush to get involved

As most other racing series have either ended their seasons or are headed to their respective finales, Formula E is getting ready to kick off its third season this coming weekend in Hong Kong. Although the electric racing series was met with a fair degree of skepticism in its first year, it’s starting to develop quite a buzz. Now that there’s a degree of technical freedom allowed in the regulations, more and more car companies are getting involved, eager to use the series as a platform to develop new electric motor-generator units, inverters, and electric powertrain control software and electronics.

We’ve known for quite a while that Jaguar planned to compete in Formula E, and it will finally become a reality this weekend. Drivers Adam Carroll and Mitch Evans will take to the track in the first factory-supported racing program from the company in more than a decade. (Jaguar had an ill-fated run in Formula 1 when it bought the Stewart Grand Prix team in 1999 and then ran it into the ground before selling the operation to Red Bull, which went on to win multiple championships.)

But in recent weeks, the leaping cat has been joined by several of its rivals. BMW has partnered with Andretti Formula E, with an eye on entering a full works program in season five (2018/2019). BMW is supplying one of its factory racing drivers, Antonio Felix Da Costa, and the partnership also includes engineering support.

Deadly rival Audi is also upping its participation. The company has an existing relationship with ABT Schaffler Audi Sport team, providing factory driver Lucas di Grassi as well as the use of Audi Sport’s facilities. This season that relationship will intensify with a greater level of both financial and technical support from Audi in preparation for an official factory team in the 2017/2018 season.

And on Tuesday, the German OEM trifecta was complete. Mercedes-Benz announced that it, too, will enter Formula E in the 2018/2019 season. Dominating the world of Formula 1 evidently hasn’t been enough to sate the three-pointed star.

While full factory racing efforts from Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz will have to wait a season or two, Jaguar will join fellow automakers Citroën-DS, Renault, Mahindra, NextEV (a Chinese-based electric vehicle startup), Faraday Future, and Venturi on the grid in Hong Kong.

As we reported earlier in the summer, this season’s Spark-Renault SRT_01 looks a little different from past years, courtesy of a new front wing. However, not everyone is entirely convinced. When I went for a ride with inaugural series champion Nelson Piquet Jr a few weeks back, he was uncomplimentary about the new wing, telling me it added weight and extra cost for very little benefit on track.

Other technical changes for season three include an increase in the amount of energy that can be regenerated by the cars (150kW, up from 100kW in the first two seasons) as well as an evolution of the battery pack to cope. However, those battery packs remain at 28kWh, which means that each driver will still need two cars in order to make it to the end of each race. (Because racing is dangerous and the batteries have to be safe, they are integrated into the Spark-Renault SRT_01 chassis, which rules out the possibility of hot-swapping them during a pit stop).

Originally, the Formula E technical roadmap was going to allow teams to develop their own batteries for this season. But the cost of doing so would be prohibitively expensive for teams that operate on budgets that are a fraction of those available to teams in Formula 1 or the World Endurance Championship.

However, last Thursday, McLaren Applied Technologies (a sister company to McLaren Racing) was picked to supply the batteries for season five (2018/2019). The deal, which lasts until 2020, will see McLaren come up with a battery that can last the entire hour-long race, putting an end to the spectacle of drivers clambering awkwardly from one car to another mid-race.

The first race of season three takes place this coming Sunday, and if you’re not in Hong Kong, here’s where you can find your local broadcaster. The season finishes with a double-header in Montreal on July 29 to 30, 2017. While there’s no race in either Miami or Long Beach, California, this time around, nor in London, there is a double-header scheduled for New York City in the middle of July—and yes, we’ll be there on the ground to keep you informed.