Formula E season 10 starts Saturday – new tracks and 600kW mid-race charging
Formula E returns to track this Saturday for its tenth season with a race in Mexico City, in a season that brings three new tracks and the debut of Formula E’s new ultra-fast mid-race charging system.
Formula E is the FIA’s top-level electric open-wheel racing series, racing single-seater racecars mostly on downtown street tracks in the world’s great cities. The series has so far raced in 24 countries and 30 cities across its first nine seasons, with 3 more new tracks and 1 new country added to the calendar for the tenth season.
At nearly 2,300m/7,500ft altitude, Mexico City’s track provides an excellent demonstration of the strengths of electric drive. Combustion vehicles that race there have to contend with thinner air, which means less efficient combustion and lower engine power. With electric drive, this isn’t a worry – electric motors work equally well at any elevation.
For season ten, Formula E’s faster, lighter, and much more angular Gen3 car returns, which debuted last season. It promised faster laptimes, but we saw only mildly improved laptimes compared to the previous year’s Gen2 equipment as teams got used to the new cars throughout the year.
But in this season’s winter testing in Valencia, the Gen3 cars proved to be more than a second faster than last year, suggesting that the teams might be getting the hang of their equipment (although part of this may have been due to testing occurring a month and a half earlier, in October, when the track was slightly warmer).
New tracks – Tokyo, Shanghai and Misano
Formula E will race on three new tracks and in one new country this year.
The biggest news is Formula E’s arrival in Tokyo, the world’s largest megacity and the series’ first race in Japan. The Tokyo race occurs around the “Tokyo Big Sight” international exhibition center, right alongside Tokyo Bay.
While Formula E has held many races in nearby Asian countries, it hasn’t been to race-obsessed Japan. Japan has its own racing leagues and Formula 1 is quite popular in the country, and the country has a particularly strong automotive industry. But that automotive industry has so far been hesitant to adopt electrification, so it will be good to see the reception for Formula E there.
Another new track will be in Shanghai, China. Formula E has raced in China multiple times before, at tracks in the capital Beijing (which held Formula E’s first race ever) and southern resort city Sanya. It has also raced in Hong Kong.
| Location | Date | Location | Date |
| Mexico City, Mexico | Jan 13 | Berlin, Germany | May 11 |
| Diriyah, Saudi Arabia | Jan 26 | Berlin, Germany | May 12 |
| Diriyah, Saudi Arabia | Jan 27 | Shanghai, China | May 25 |
| São Paulo, Brazil | Mar 16 | Shanghai, China | May 26 |
| Tokyo, Japan | Mar 30 | Portland, USA | Jun 29 |
| Misano, Italy | April 13 | Portland, USA | Jun 30 |
| Misano, Italy | April 14 | London, UK | Jul 20 |
| Monaco | April 27 | London, UK | Jul 21 |
The Shanghai race will be held at Shanghai International Circuit, a true race track rather than a street track. This track has been used for Formula One races in the past and is scheduled to host another F1 race again this year, and is a high speed circuit with several long straights. High speed circuits have offered an interesting challenge for Formula E in the past, as higher speeds mean lower efficiency and increase the benefit gained from drafting, especially in a low-downforce and energy-constrained series like this one.
Last year at Portland (another purpose-built race track, which the series returns to this year), the race ended up taking on similar strategy to a bicycle race, with cars saving energy in a peloton-like pack until later in the race where the true sprint began. We might expect to see something similar from Shanghai – though it’s also likely that Formula E will use a shorter layout instead of the full high-speed F1 layout, as it has done on other tracks before.
Finally, the last new track is in Italy, where the series has raced many times before on the downtown street circuit at the Rome ePrix, but the race is moving this year to another actual race circuit at Misano Adriatico, on the Adriatic coast of Italy. This track is often used as a motorcycle track, much like Formula E’s winter testing track in Valencia, with lower speeds and a shorter lap length than the full Shanghai circuit (but longer than the Portland circuit).
Mid-race charging is finally here
We’ve come a long way since the first Formula E season, when originally drivers would stop in the middle of the race to swap from one car to another with a fully-charged battery. Formula E had gone with this system because it would be too difficult to set up mid-race charging or battery swapping, so they just swapped the driver from one car to the other instead.
The Gen2 car solved this problem, as battery density had improved enough that battery (or car) swapping was no longer necessary. Since then, Formula E cars haven’t needed pit stops, and finish the race on the same battery and tire they started on.
But with EVs maturing and DC quick charging being in focus, Formula E is trying to incorporate that concept into racing now.
Formula E had originally planned to introduce a mid-race charging stop alongside the Gen3 car last year, but had to push back the plans for a year due to problems getting the equipment built.
Now, the system is ready to be used at select races this year, and it will debut at the aforementioned Misano Adriatico ePrix in Italy in April. For the races where it’s active, it will replace Formula E’s “Attack Mode” system, which gives every driver a period of boosted power use that they can use strategically to gain positions during the race.
The new mid-race charge system will be called “Attack Charge,” and will charge cars at up to 600kW, quite a bit faster than the fastest consumer-available fast chargers today that top out at 250-350kW.
Formula E says that a mandatory 30-second charging stop in the middle of the race will deliver about 4kWh of energy to the cars – this is only about ~10% worth of charge, but that’s not bad for 30 seconds of charging. This extra energy will be usable during periods later in the race where cars can boost power output to 350kW, rather than the standard 300kW.
The addition of a mid-race charging stop promises to shake up race results more, as teams will have some strategic flexibility about when to take their pit stops. This means more passing, which has always been a strong point of Formula E.
What to expect
Formula E has offered exciting racing all along, with significantly more lead changes and unpredictable racing than Formula One. Some of Formula E’s more chaotic races, like Portland last year, have had almost as many position changes during a single race as Formula One will see over an entire season.
Last season, 7 drivers from 6 teams won a Formula E race, whereas in F1 a single driver won 12 races on his own. The championship – which went to Jake Dennis, whose team Jaguar got second in the Teams’ championship behind Envision – wasn’t decided until the final race weekend, whereas the F1 championship was decided months before the season ended.
So if you’re interested in seeing unpredictable racing, Formula E is likely to provide that.
As with most years there have been a number of driver and team changes, with Nio leaving the sport and the team rebranding to ERT after new sponsorship. Several teams have swapped drivers or brought back former Formula E drivers, but the one new rookie is Jehan Daruvala, who joins Maserati. He comes from Formula 2 where his best season result was 7th, though he has ranked as high as 2nd in other series.
As much as the racing is unpredictable, over the course of a season the cream does tend to rise to the top. Some teams have classically done better across seasons, so we can expect the likes of Jaguar, Envision, Andretti, DS Penske and Porsche to show up near the top of the table. In winter testing, it looked as if the Jaguar powertrain, used by the Jaguar and Envision teams, performed best, so that bodes well for those two teams and their drivers Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Robin Frijns and Sebastien Buemi.
The first race of Formula E’s tenth season is this Saturday at 8 PM UTC, Noon/12 PM PST, 3 PM EST, or 2 PM local Mexico City time. In the US, all sessions will be streamed live on Roku, or will be broadcast delayed on Sunday at 4:30PM on CBS. To find out how to watch it in other regions, check out Formula E’s “Ways to Watch” page.
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Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
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After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
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Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
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