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Like Jean-Eric Vergne Crossing the finish line in Brooklyn last weekend, he did more than lock the championship of the 2018-19 season of Formula E. Driving for the Chinese team Techeetah, Vergne and his race car offered a powerful, though silent, testimony to the technology that could soon power the next electric car you install in your driveway.
Formula E, which now has five seasons, is designed to take advantage of the race – a long-evolving automotive development lab, offering breakthroughs such as anti-lock brakes, traction control and dual-clutch transmissions – to badist manufacturers and suppliers of electric vehicles such as BMW, Nissan, Audi and Panasonic. , Mahindra and Jaguar are advancing their battery-powered products. Not only to show what electricity can do, but to improve it.
"One of the main reasons is to promote the benefits of electric vehicles – not only to environmental benefits, with emissions, but also to technology and performance," says James Barclay, who leads the team. Formula E of Jaguar. "The reality is that there are real translations of the technology from Formula E to our future production cars."
Now teams can not play with the drums anymore, at least not yet. Each car must carry the same package of 52 kWh. The same goes for aerodynamics. The teams share a bodywork. While this limits innovation in two broad areas, it forces manufacturers to find their competitive advantage elsewhere. The result is a multitude of upgrades that could advance our future as a trendy vehicle in everything from weight reduction to energy management.
Mbad reduction has long been a way to make electric vehicles faster and more efficient, and the skills learned here translate into road cars. According to Allan McNish, director of performance, Audi has applied its "Ultra" lightening strategy to an ultra level, eliminating 10% of the mbad of its race car by badyzing each component for potential savings. BMW has lightened the weight of its engine by supporting it with composite materials, using highly conductive materials such as resins, titanium and ceramics. "These materials are tested in the electric motor during the racing season to improve the future electric motors of road cars," said spokesman Oleg Satinovsky. The company also uses its 3D printing know-how, developed in its new $ 11.2 million facility located near Munich, to manufacture components such as an aluminum engine enclosure to 360 degrees. BMW's plan is to manufacture 50,000 3D printed parts a year for all its vehicles.
The BMW race car uses the same electric motor control software as its electric i3 and mini.
Andreas Beil / BMW Motorsport
BMW also sees a technology transfer when it comes to turning off the power. The German brand has simultaneously introduced an electronic cable braking system into its Formula E car as well as its X5 and X7 SUVs and its Series 8 coupe this year. This system allows him to offer for the first time to the consumers of his M8 a setting of the sensation of the brake pedal. This is an innovation that he developed in part to help Formula E drivers maintain a steady braking sensation, even as the level of energy regeneration changes to balance power output and return, a key element in a sport that does not reload the stands. BMW also witnessed a direct transfer of software: its racing car, the i3, and the Mini Cooper electric share the coding of electric motor control.
This idea of technology transfer is not so natural for the Formula E manufacturer who does not operate in the most exclusive sectors of the electric vehicle market. The Indian conglomerate Mahindra has been manufacturing electric vehicles for 18 years, but has focused on low-cost and low-voltage applications. Being part of the racing series has beefed up his experience with more powerful vehicles and helped him plan a new series of higher-end consumer electric vehicles, said team manager, Dilbagh Gill. The competition also exposed Mahindra to the construction and applications of carbon fiber and composites. He has also helped the company break into and build relationships with suppliers and the supply chain needed to expand the use of these advanced materials across its entire vehicle lineup.
This transfer is particularly relevant and direct for the latest Mahindra brand, Automobili Pininfarina, a manufacturer of all-electric supercars. "As it is a pure, high-performance electric car, a lot of knowledge has been gained from Formula E to the design of the battery pack, the cooling of the battery, the engine and the engine." engine design, "says Gill. "Everything we learned, including a lot of work on software, controls, drivers, standards of conduct." Even the main development engine of Pininfarina remains the same: Nick Heidfield, who has driven for the Formula E racing team over the past three years, is present. charge to perfect the experience behind the wheel.
The route from a lane to an badembly line is not always a one-way street. Nissan, which has been producing the Leaf en mbade for nearly 10 years, has integrated into Formula E the technology it manufactured for the 100% electric compact. She translates what she learns into the new generation of electric vehicles. What Nissan calls the "Road to Race to Road" process focuses on energy efficiency, said world motorsport director Michael Carcamo. This includes tiny software changes to extract more power and get out of the battery.
BMW sees a similar reciprocity in its design and engineering teams for Formula E and mainstream consumer vehicles. According to Satinovsky, the team that developed the brand's electric motors, inverters and software for consumer electric vehicles was chosen to do the same job for the Motorsport division.
Porsche, which will debut in Formula E next year, continues its taste of being a little different. According to Porsche Motorsport Communications Director Dave Engleman, since the future Taycan electric sedan is quite developed and Formula E is only 75% blocked, the Porsche will use Taycan as a test bed for its technologies. electric racing. After making some hot laps on the Brooklyn track in a Taycan prototype with driver Neel Jani, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we can attest, which means that the turnover is very fast.
"Competition has always been and will remain a major catalyst," says Audi. If it means going faster, further, more efficiently and with zero emissions, we are all for the race.
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