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By Jack Graham [[link removed]] | Deputy Editor, Funded Projects

A glimpse into the future

The roar of engine exhausts. The lingering smell of burnt fuel.

These are two things my colleague Beatrice Tridimas did not experience on her trip to Formula E's final race the other day in London. This all-electric, lesser-known sibling of Formula One racing has been going for ten years.

It has also become the testing ground for new electric vehicle (EV) technologies [[link removed]], which could help to fuel the future of green transport.

"What we learn on the racetrack through software enables us to transfer that information to our core engineering teams for our future vehicles," said James Barclay, team principal of Jaguar TCS Formula E racing team - which won this year's championship.

Jaguar TCS has boosted the battery range of Jaguar Land Rover’s electric SUVs, based on experience at the Formula E racetrack, for example. The carmaker will use silicon carbide inverter technology, which allows for a faster, lightweight powertrain, developed for its race cars in all future Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.

A member of the Envision racing Formula E team leans on the back of the Jaguar I-Type 6 race car before round 15 of the Formula E world championship at the ExCeL Centre in London, July 20, 2024. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Beatrice Tridimas

Roughly, it takes four to five years for innovations developed for Formula E racing to trickle down to passenger EVs, said Julia Pallé, vice president of sustainability at Formula E.

So the kinds of innovations you see on the track today could be commonplace in consumer cars by 2030.

This year, Formula E teams are working to improve the efficiency of regenerative braking to ensure more energy created from braking is fed back to the battery when the car has the right momentum.

Nearly one in five cars sold globally in 2023 was electric, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which says EVs are set to play a key role [[link removed]] in meeting net-zero goals by reducing oil usage and carbon emissions.

Thomson Reuters Foundation/Beatrice Tridimas

No silver bullet

The trouble is, transport experts say the world cannot put all its faith in EVs.

"Electric vehicles are a necessary but not sufficient condition for decarbonisation," said Cecilia Briceño-Garmendia, global lead for transport economics at the World Bank.

Switching to clean vehicles is the most direct way to tackle transport emissions, especially with demand for vehicles expected to grow. But EVs require significant mining of critical minerals, and building them releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide.

Governments also need to adapt urban planning to reduce traffic, invest in improving and electrifying public transport and switch road freight to rail and boat, Briceño-Garmendia said.

Consumers are also being put off by premium prices of EVs - about 70% higher than conventional vehicles, according to the World Bank - and the lack of charging infrastructure, especially in the Global South.

It is a particular issue for lower-income communities living in densely populated areas with little additional space, according to Ashley Nunes, a researcher at Harvard University.

For the electric vehicle market, then, the racing circuit seems like a formula for success. Just don't expect EVs to win the race to net zero.

See you next week,

Jack

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