Formula E, electric car racing championship, is a laboratory for new technologies

The motorsport competition categories have always functioned as a testing laboratory for new equipment, technologies and fuels. Many of the innovations approved on the race tracks have migrated to the streets and equip the most varied types of vehicles, now including electric ones.

“Titanium and aluminum parts in the engines, exchange with changes without the need to use a clutch and the ‘butterflies’ system on the steering wheel, among others, are some examples of technologies that were born on the tracks and went to the streets”, says Ricardo Kenzo Motomatsu, engineer and professor at FEI (Faculty of Industrial Engineering). “And it’s no different with electric vehicle technology,” he says.

Enthusiastic about electric mobility, he emphasizes the importance of tracks as a testing laboratory and the challenges that need to be resolved. “Today, the big problem with trams is battery management and the fast charging system. Once resolved, they could bring a huge evolution from what we already have on the streets today.”

With a proposal to develop new equipment from 100% electric cars, world motorsport has had a specific category since 2014, Formula E, with tests on street circuits in places such as Beijing (China), Miami (United States), Berlin (Germany), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Punta del Este (Uruguay). In 2023, the category arrives in São Paulo with a race on March 25 at the Anhembi Sambadrome and its surroundings.

Having worked in F1, the Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi has been a Formula E driver since its inception and is linked, as an investor in startups, to electric mobility movements. According to him, the transfer of knowledge acquired in racing has great potential to reach common vehicles, but this does not happen immediately. “The bulk of what we develop on the track takes between five and six years to reach the street,” he says.

As an example of technological innovation, Di Grassi cites the Gen3 model, which arrives next year in the category and features two electric motors, one positioned on each axle. Together, they can reach 600 kW (kilowatts), or about 810 horsepower, making the car four-wheel drive.

Another novelty is the fast recharge system developed by the company ABB for the category. It works at pitstop and recharges the vehicle’s battery in seconds. This charge can reach 600 kW and, if applied to a street car, could recharge an electric vehicle in a time very close to what is spent today at a common gas station.

“What weighs most on electric vehicles today is the charging time and the lack of infrastructure for refueling”, says Di Grassi.

“Those who travel up to 200 km in the city can recharge the battery at home using a 220V socket. It works more or less like a cell phone, taking a few hours to reach enough charge to travel the same distance again. In this case, an ultra-fast system is not needed. This, however, is a problem on longer trips, when it is necessary to have more support stations”, he adds.

Attentive to this opportunity, Junior Miranda, CEO of GreenV, a company specialized in recharge points, says that the company installs around one hundred new units per month. There are currently approximately 1,500 semi-public points across the country, but at least 3,000 are needed – a mark that should be reached by 2024. makes mobility possible in the country”, he says.

To meet this new customer demand, automakers are starting to move. Volvo, for example, invested BRL 10 million in the so-called electric corridors, which have stops strategically located on highways that connect various capitals. In total, there are 13 charging stations covering 3,250 km that can be used by vehicles of any make and model. “We have the ambition to connect all of Brazil through electric corridors”, says Rafael Ugo, marketing director at Volvo Car Brasil.

Fossil fuel stations (gasoline, ethanol and diesel) are also preparing to receive trams. “Only one of our customers intends to install 40 ultra-fast chargers this year, with another 200 in 2023 and 600 in 2024”, says Marco Aurélio Vilela de Oliveira, CEO of Eletrocentro, which serves one of the largest service station companies installed in Brazil.

All this expansion of the market is justified by the numbers of the sector. According to ABVE (Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association), the fleet of electrified vehicles (100% battery electric or hybrid models) licensed in Brazil in the first half of 2022 shows exponential growth, with 20,427 units against 13,899 in the same period of 2021. Looking only at electric units (100% battery powered), there was a 19% increase in the number of registrations (3,395) in the period.

The estimate is that 2022 should close with more than 40,000 units licensed, an increase of 17% compared to last year, with the national fleet reaching 97,569 electrified units.

More than generating 8,000 direct and indirect jobs and bringing about US$ 120 million to São Paulo’s coffers, Formula E in the capital of São Paulo places the city and Brazil at the center of discussions related to world urban mobility. “What we need is to accelerate the future in relation to the transition to electric mobility, and Formula E can contribute to this in the country”, says Di Grassi.

Also keeping an eye on this emerging market, former drivers Felipe and Zeca Giaffone created a startup, Giaffone Electric, responsible for transforming medium and heavy combustion vehicles (such as vans and trucks) into electric vehicles, duly customized to meet customers’ needs.

The Giaffone brothers replace the vehicle’s original engines with electrical systems. “The idea is to make a personalized project and, as the battery is the most expensive, we install a set of the size that the customer really needs”, explains Felipe. “It doesn’t make sense, for example, for a truck to have a battery pack for 300 km when it only runs 100 km a day.”

Another advantage is the reuse of a used vehicle that returns to the street without polluting. “We took a truck that polluted for 20 years and made it ‘green'”, says Zeca. “In addition to the advantage of cleaner energy, there is also the fact that we reuse the vehicle in a more sustainable way, preventing it from being abandoned or continuing to run around polluting the air around it.”

Although the benefits to the environment and public health are evident, the cost of electric cars in Brazil is high when compared to the traditional car. The cheapest available on the market is the Reanult Kwid E-TECH with prices starting at R$146,990, followed by the Chery iCar, which costs R$149,990.