This is the first time Formula E has opened a season in Mexico City, with the last four seasons being launched in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Unlike the last few seasons, the opening race is not a doubleheader this time around – there will only be one race, on Saturday, so if you wait until Sunday to tune in, you’ll miss the live action.
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.
New car
The most exciting change this year is the new car, which is a big change from last year’s car. The Gen3 spec looks very different than before, with a much more angular look.
They’re also smaller in every dimension – length, width, wheelbase, height, and most importantly weight. Smaller cars mean there’s more room on the track, which can potentially mean more overtakes on track. Smaller, lighter cars also perform better, since there’s less weight to push around in turns or during acceleration or braking.
But the biggest and most interesting change is in the powertrain. In addition to a boost to 350kW of power (as compared to 250kW in Gen2) and top speed of 200mph, the Gen3 car also has an additional 250kW front motor specifically for regenerative braking. This makes the Formula E Gen3 car the first Formula car to have both front and rear powertrains.
This means the car is capable of regenerating up to 600kW of power under braking, more than double what it could last year. So the cars will be more efficient and, therefore, able to go further and faster.
In fact, there’s so much energy recovery available from the motors that the car won’t even have rear brakes. Instead of rear friction brakes, the car relies only on its 350kW motor for rear braking. It still has front friction brakes, given that the front axle does the majority of work during braking due to load transfer, but the front brakes won’t need to be as large since they’re backed up by the front motor.
That said, these two powertrains do not make the Gen3 car an all-wheel drive vehicle. Like other formula cars, it still gets all of its acceleration power from the rear axle. But theoretically it would be possible to move to all-wheel drive without a significant car redesign, so we wonder if that might be in the Gen3 car’s future.
That power now goes through Hankook instead of Michelin tires, as Formula E has changed tire suppliers for the first time. But the tires will remain all-weather, treaded tires, suitable for street racing even in wet(-ish) conditions, rather than racing slicks like most racing cars use, which offer much better grip in dry conditions. So between a more powerful rear motor and all-weather tires, Formula E cars will continue to be squirrelly on corner exit, testing driver skill at every turn.
So there isn’t that much of a change in balance during acceleration, but the new car should offer a totally different braking experience, which will take the drivers some time to get used to, especially the first time they take to the track in anger this weekend. We expect some interesting passing opportunities in the early half of the season.
That 600kW of total system regenerative braking capacity is relevant in another way, too. The car’s battery is capable of up to 600kW DC quick charging. Not only does this get used in the race by the braking system, but Formula E plans to add mid-race charging pit stops this year.
In races with these pit stops, the series will require that every driver make a short charging stop, and doing so will unlock activations of “attack mode,” a higher power mode which gives the cars a boost in energy for a few minutes at a time. This change should add more passing and dynamism to the race, while also demonstrating 600kW charging, twice the speed of the fastest consumer chargers.
All of this put together resulted in cars going about half a second faster around the test track in Valencia during pre-season testing last month, part of which was in wet conditions, which meant teams didn’t get as many dry laps as they’d like. While half a second doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s quite a bit in racing – and it’s also a comparison between an outgoing powertrain and an incoming one.
Whenever technology changes happen, it takes a while for teams and drivers to get used to them, and for changes this significant, we can imagine there will be quite a learning curve. We wouldn’t be surprised if the cars end up even faster after shaking out the new technology through the rest of the season.
As with other Formula E seasons, particularly during the time of COVID, the calendar is subject to change. Previously the series planned to race again in Seoul, South Korea, which closed out the last season of racing. But that race had to be cancelled due to renovations and was replaced by Cape Town. But the four new circuits still need to be certified by the FIA for race preparedness, so it’s entirely possible we will see some changes to the calendar.
Hyderabad will host the first Formula E race in India, home of Mahindra racing, a longstanding fan favorite team in the series. Cape Town isn’t the first time Formula E has visited Africa – but the other visits have been in North Africa, so it’s the first sub-Saharan site the series has visited. São Paulo is the first time Formula E has visited race-obsessed Brazil, a country with a long history and rabid fanbase in motorsport, though the series has visited nearby Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile many times. And Portland will be the fourth location in the United States that has seen a Formula E race, behind Long Beach, Miami and New York. We’ve now seen one race in each corner of the United States. (Sorry middle America – you’re next perhaps?)
Other changes
One long-awaited rule change, at least amongst motorsport fans, is the end of FanBoost.
FanBoost was conceived in the original season of Formula E as a way to drive fan engagement. Fans could vote for their favorite driver on social media and the top three drivers would get a short boost of power they could use at any point during the race.
While it rarely had a big effect on racing, especially in recent years as the boosts got shorter, many motorsport fans immediately dismissed the series thinking that FanBoost sullied the purity of it all (as motorsport fans are wont to say about … almost everything).
Defending champion Stoffel Vandoorne, who won last year with Mercedes, has shifted to DS Penske (formerly DS Techeetah), alongside two-time champion Jean-Eric Vergne. Mercedes was last year’s constructor’s champion, but they have left the series, and their team is now in the hands of McLaren.
In addition to McLaren taking over for Mercedes, we’ve had other team changes as well. Nissan has taken full ownership of the e.dams team, the ABT team is back with the help of Cupra after missing last year due to ending their relationship with Audi, DS has cut ties with Techeetah and partnered with Penske instead, and Maserati has taken over the ROKiT Venturi team in their first return to racing as a constructor since the 1950s.
Several drivers have shifted teams or departed the series (including veteran and longtime EV advocate Alexander Sims, who we’re sad to see go). But we want to focus on the two new drivers: Sacha Fenestraz and Jake Hughes.
Fenestraz participated in the very last race of last season (taking over for Giovinazzi after a hand injury), so he’s essentially a rookie this year. He’s a French former Formula Renault Eurocup champion and has been a Formula E reserve driver for Jaguar for the last few seasons.
Hughes has raced in several series, and is a former champion of the BRDC Formula 4, now known as the GB3 championship, which is the top single-seater racing category in Britain, where Hughes hails from. He served as a reserve and development driver for Mercedes’ team for the last two seasons and will start racing this weekend, with McLaren.
The racing starts on Saturday January 14 at 2:00 pm local Mexico City time, which is noon Pacific Time, 3:00 pm Eastern and 8:00 pm UTC. The race will be aired on CBS Sports Network in the United States (though it looks like it will be shown delayed at 11:30 pm Eastern). Practice sessions will be streamed on YouTube.
If you’re not in the United States, you can check the Formula E website for ways to watch in your country. If you can’t find a way to watch the race live, Formula E usually uploads race highlights to their youtube channel within days, though we don’t know whether they’ll be posting full races on there as this seems to change season to season.
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A Wallbox EV charger for electric car is displayed during the “Mondial de l’Auto” at Parc des Expositions on October 15, 2024 in Paris, France.
Chesnot | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Silicon anodes appear to be leading the way in the race to commercialize next-generation battery technologies for electric vehicles.
The buzz around silicon-based anodes, which promise improved power and faster charging capabilities for EVs, has been growing in recent months — just as the hype around solid-state batteries seems to have fizzled.
It comes as increasing EV sales continue to drive up global battery demand, prompting auto giants to team up with major cell manufacturers on the road to full electrification.
While some OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have inked deals with solid-state battery developers, carmakers such as Mercedes, Porsche and GM have all bet big on silicon anodes to deliver transformative change in the science behind EVs.
A recent report from consultancy IDTechEx described the promise of advanced silicon anode materials as “immense” for improving critical areas of battery performance, noting that this potential hadn’t gone unnoticed by carmakers and key players in the battery industry.
It warned, however, that challenges such as cycle life, shelf life and — perhaps most importantly — cost, need to be addressed for widespread adoption.
Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science at the U.S. government’s Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, said silicon anodes appear to have the edge over solid-state batteries.
“If there’s a horse race, silicon does seem to be ahead at least at this moment, but we haven’t commercialized either one of them,” Srinivasan told CNBC via videoconference.
Srinivasan said five years ago silicon-anode batteries had a calendar life of roughly one year, but recent data appears to show a dramatic improvement in the durability of these materials, with some tests now projecting a three to four-year calendar life.
Unlike the cycle life of a battery, which counts the number of times it can be charged and discharged, the calendar life measures degradation over time. Typically, the calendar life of a battery refers to the period in which it can function at over 80% of its initial capacity, regardless of its usage.
Srinivasan said solid-state batteries, long billed as the “holy grail” of sustainable driving, still have a long way to go before they can match the recent progress made by silicon anodes.
“That transition still has to be made in solid-state with their metal batteries and that’s why I think you’re hearing from people that, hey, it looks like that promise hasn’t panned out,” Srinivasan said.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t get there. It may happen in a few years. It just means that it feels like today silicon is in a different part of the technology readiness level.”
Silicon anodes vs. solid-state batteries
Analysts say silicon anodes theoretically offer 10 times the energy density as graphite, which are commonly used in battery anodes today. Yet, these same materials typically suffer from rapid degradation when lots of silicon is used.
“Silicon anodes and solid-state batteries are two emerging technology trends in the EV battery market aimed at pushing the boundaries of high-performance battery cells,” Rory McNulty, senior research analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, told CNBC via email.
A researcher checks the electromagnet de-ironing machine at the Daejoo Electronic Materials Co. R&D center in Siheung, South Korea, on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
It has typically been the case that better battery performance comes at the cost of longevity or safety, McNulty said. Silicon anodes, for example, are known to swell significantly during charging, which reduces the battery’s longevity.
By comparison, McNulty said solid-state batteries were claimed to greatly improve the stability of the electrolyte to high performance electrode materials, combating the challenges of using high energy density materials such as silicon and lithium.
As the name suggests, solid-state batteries contain a solid electrolyte, made from materials such as ceramics. That makes them different from conventional lithium-ion batteries, which contain liquid electrolyte.
Especially in the West, advances in the area of silicon anodes [are] seen as strategic opportunity to catch up with China.
Georgi Georgiev
Battery raw materials analyst at Fastmarkets
Japan’s Toyota and Nissan have both said they are aiming to bring solid-state batteries into mass production over the coming years, while China’s SAIC Motor Corp reportedly said in early September that its MG brand would equip cars with solid-state batteries within the next 12 months.
Nonetheless, analysts remain skeptical about when solid-state batteries will actually make it to market.
A strategic opportunity?
“Silicon based anodes promise to be the next-generation technology in the anode field, providing a solution for faster charging,” Georgi Georgiev, battery raw materials analyst at consultancy Fastmarkets, told CNBC via email.
Georgiev said several industry players have been looking into the potential of silicon anodes, from well-established anode suppliers in China and South Korea to new players like Taiwan’s ProLogium and U.S. manufacturers Group14 and Sila Nanotechnologies.
“Especially in the West, advances in the area of silicon anodes [are] seen as strategic opportunity to catch up with China, which dominates the graphite-based anode supply chains with Chinese anode producers holding 98% of the global anode market for batteries,” Georgiev said.
“However, there are significant technical challenges going to 100% silicon anode such as silicon expansion affecting the longevity of the batteries and currently there are several routes to produce silicon anodes,” he added.
A FEV x ProLogium Technology Co. 100% silicon composite anode next-generation battery at the Paris Motor Show in Paris, France, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Taiwanese battery maker ProLogium debuted the world’s first fully silicon anode battery at the Paris Motor Show last month, saying it’s new fast-charging battery system not only surpassed traditional lithium-ion batteries in performance and charging efficiency but also “critical industry challenges.”
ProLogium, citing test data, said it’s 100% silicon anode battery could charge from 5% to 60% in just 5 minutes, and reach 80% in 8.5 minutes. It described the advancement as an “unmatched achievement in the competitive EV market,” which will help to reduce charging times and extend the range of EVs.
Fastmarkets’ Georgiev said a big question mark over the commercialization of silicon anodes is the cost of production and whether any of the major silicon-anode producers “could produce material at scale with a consistent quality and at a competitive price — [a] major requirements of OEMs.”
“At this stage silicon anodes are used more as an additive to graphite-based anodes and in the years to come we expect to see increase of silicon share in anode, but in combination with graphite, while 100% silicon anodes will take longer time to enter the mass market,” he added.
Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal
Ahmed Jadallah | Reuters
Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend.
The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.
The average selling price of oil for the second quarter of 2024 stood at $85 per barrel, but dropped to $78.7 per barrel during the third quarter, according to Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi capital, as non-OPEC supply volumes grew.
The oil firm said its year-on-year decline was partly offset by a “reduction in selling, administrative and general expenses primarily driven by a gain from derivative instruments, and a decrease in production royalties largely reflecting lower crude oil prices and a lower average effective royalty rate compared to the same quarter last year.”
Aramco’s dividend includes a base payout of $20.3 billion and an atypical performance-linked one of $10.8 billion. The Saudi government and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, are the main beneficiaries of the dividend, holding stakes of roughly 81.5% and 16% in the company.
The remaining shareholding trades freely on Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul stock exchange, with the company having finalized its second public share offering back in June.
Aramco’s earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) came in at $51.45 billion in the third quarter, down 17% year-on-year. Aramco’s capital expenditure guidance was brought up 20% to $13.23 billion.
The company was trading at 27.45 riyals following the announcement, down 0.18% on the previous day.
The earnings align with a broader trend across oil majors, whose third-quarter profits have also suffered from declines in crude prices and refining margins. Aramco said it achieved average realized crude price of $79.3 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $89.3 per barrel in the same period of last year.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter who produces roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude at present, serves as the de facto leader of the OPEC+ oil producers’ alliance, a subset of whom agreed over the weekend to delay a planned December output hike by one month.
“Aramco delivered robust net income and generated strong free cash flow during the third quarter, despite a lower oil price environment,” CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement. “We also progressed our upstream developments, strengthened our downstream value chain, and advanced our new energies program as we continue to invest through cycles.”
The revenues will be a boon to the Saudi economy, which is currently undergoing a diversification process under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s legacy Vision 2030 scheme spanning a slew of high-cost infrastructure “gigaprojects.”
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance cut the kingdom’s growth forecast to 0.8% in 2024, in a steep decline from a previous projection of 4.4%, and raised the outlook for the national budgetary shortfall to roughly 2.9% of GDP, from a prior indication of 1.9%.
On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!
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