![]() A mid-mounted electric motor gives it a total output of 536bhp and 679lb ft for a 0-62mph time of 4.5sec its top speed is limited to 124mph. It has beefed-up double-wishbone suspension with 385mm of travel and Continental off-road tyres. Built by French company Spark Racing Technology, which also makes Formula E chassis, it’s a bespoke 1650kg, four-wheel-drive machine built around a steel-alloy tubular frame. And when they do watch, we need to make sure we get a real race, and we need a competitive race with high performance – and the performance of these cars is huge and crazy.”Īs with Formula E, Extreme E will effectively start as a single-car formula, using what’s officially known as the Spark Odyssey 21. “People will want to watch the locations, and that will be a big hook for fans. “The interesting locations will get people to their screens to watch,” says Agag. Formula E’s city races give it a high profile that has helped draw in major manufacturers, but it still struggles to attract substantial television audiences. We’ve installed state-of-the-art filters to make the engines as clean as possible.”Įxtreme E’s remote locations means that its events won’t be open to spectators, which is another reason for scepticism. “The aim is to minimise your carbon footprint, and using a ship will produce about a third of the emissions of flying. ![]() If you don’t want to create one, you need to stay in bed – and even doing that has a carbon footprint. But Agag responds: “Any human activity has a carbon footprint. Of course, international shipping is a major contributor to environmental damage, and the RMS Saint Helena is powered by diesel engines. A built-in environmental laboratory will allow scientists to conduct work in the regions the championship is visiting. It has now been extensively reworked (including being given a bold new paint job) to become a mobile paddock that will ship the entire Extreme E circus around the world. Built in 1989, the 150-metre-long, 6767-gross-tonne vessel was primarily used by the Royal Mail on a route between Cape Town in South Africa and the isolated Atlantic island of Saint Helena. To get to those regions, Extreme E will use the aforementioned RMS Saint Helena. “The important thing is that by going and racing there, we’re going to raise awareness – and then we’re going to help fix it.” “Formula E is based around single-seater racing cars,” he says, “so we wanted to do something based around road cars, and SUVs are an increasingly big market for manufacturers. It has been key to giving us energy, and we’ve gained credibility.”Įxtreme E was also shaped in part by Agag’s desire to create a series as far removed from Formula E as possible. ![]() “It has been motivation for me: people have questioned whether Extreme E can actually happen, but less than they did when we launched Formula E. “Extreme E is only possible because of what happened with Formula E,” says Agag, who remains chairman of the single-seater series. And even when it did, some didn’t think it would survive. Many doubted it would even get to launch. While it’s now in its sixth season and supported by some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers, the basic concept of an electric single-seater championship met plenty of scepticism and doubt when Formula E was launched back in 2014. That man is Alejandro Agag, the 49-year-old Spanish politician-turned-businessman-turned-motorsport team boss and the founder of Formula E. So why should we be taking Extreme E seriously? Well, for starters, because the man who created it has a proven track record of pulling off the seemingly impossible. It’s a concept that’s like no other motorsport championship previously conceived – and one that seemingly stretches the boundaries of credibility. It’s getting crazy now.Īnything else? Oh, yes: instead of flying to each location, the entire operation will be carried on a specially converted Royal Mail cargo ship that will double as a mobile environmental research laboratory. ![]() These efforts to promote sustainability will be overseen by an expert independent panel of scientists, drawn from Cambridge and Oxford universities. The five event locations have been selected because they’ve all been damaged by human activity and climate change, with the goal of the Extreme E organisers being to raise awareness of such issues and support sustainability projects to repair their environments for the future. Honda E owners offered new smart home charging service. ![]()
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