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City roads key to electric car racing
Source: AFP |
September 14, 2012, Friday
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MOTOR racing is set for an electric makeover that will see a new generation of green cars speeding at 220 kilometer per hour around urban racetracks - at least until their batteries run out.
Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E Holdings, says the global championship, which has been authorized by FIA, motorsport's governing body, will help finally make electric cars popular.
"That is one of our main objectives: to change perceptions of people about electric cars if we manage to have a championship that is sexy, that people like, that they see people racing without breaking down," he said.
Formula E is planned to start in 2014 with 10 races staged worldwide between about May and November.
Organizers hope for all the races to take place in city centers, potentially stretching from European capitals like Paris, London and Rome to more far-flung locales like Moscow, Beijing, Sydney and even Morocco's ancient city of Marrakesh. Rio de Janeiro is the first city to come on board.
Agag said he wants races inside cities partly for the spectacle and partly to exploit what he says is a major advantage of the electric cars over Formula One's scream machines: relative quiet.
"We have noise, but it's a very moderate noise. The spectators will still have the emotion of watching the race with that noise there..., but you won't hear that noise up to one mile from the track. So it's ideal for city centers, where noise pollution is a very serious problem," Agag said.
The prototype vehicle developed by France's Formulec has a maximum speed of 220 km/h and accelerates to 100 km/h in three seconds. That's not quite as fast as the monstrous F1 cars, which can hit 100 km/h in less than two seconds. The most crucial statistic, though, is battery life: 25 minutes.
Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E Holdings, says the global championship, which has been authorized by FIA, motorsport's governing body, will help finally make electric cars popular.
"That is one of our main objectives: to change perceptions of people about electric cars if we manage to have a championship that is sexy, that people like, that they see people racing without breaking down," he said.
Formula E is planned to start in 2014 with 10 races staged worldwide between about May and November.
Organizers hope for all the races to take place in city centers, potentially stretching from European capitals like Paris, London and Rome to more far-flung locales like Moscow, Beijing, Sydney and even Morocco's ancient city of Marrakesh. Rio de Janeiro is the first city to come on board.
Agag said he wants races inside cities partly for the spectacle and partly to exploit what he says is a major advantage of the electric cars over Formula One's scream machines: relative quiet.
"We have noise, but it's a very moderate noise. The spectators will still have the emotion of watching the race with that noise there..., but you won't hear that noise up to one mile from the track. So it's ideal for city centers, where noise pollution is a very serious problem," Agag said.
The prototype vehicle developed by France's Formulec has a maximum speed of 220 km/h and accelerates to 100 km/h in three seconds. That's not quite as fast as the monstrous F1 cars, which can hit 100 km/h in less than two seconds. The most crucial statistic, though, is battery life: 25 minutes.
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