Technology transfer
Does Formula E benefit electric road cars?
RACE-to-road technology transfer can be a thorny issue. People love to cite the examples of Jaguar pioneering disc brakes or Porsche developing the PDK gearbox at Le Mans, but as F1 and other disciplines become evermore rarefied and specialised, the links to even highperformance road cars become ever-more tenuous; racing has become more about marketing road-car brands than directly developing their technology.
The shift to electric power has opened up new possibilities, however. DS Performance director Thomas Chevaucher cites the DS 9 E-TENSE 360 plug-in hybrid (pictured), going on sale later in 2021, as an example. It has software developed by the brand’s Formula E engineers and driver Jean-Eric Vergne. “In testing, we know what the driver will do – and that they’ll do what they’re asked,” he explains. “This lets us try a lot of things and have a quicker development cycle than with a road car.
“The interface we developed helps you optimise brake energy recovery and therefore extend your electric range,” he continues. “In Formula E, the drivers get indications telling them to lift and activate regen. In a road car, you can usually slow for a corner using regen rather than the hydraulic brakes, and therefore preserve rather than dissipate energy, but this isn’t always easy to anticipate.
“Our system takes data from sensors and the sat-nav, looks at how the road is and tells you the optimum time to lift off in order to maximise your energy recovery.”
Aside from that specific example, Formula E generates more wide-ranging improvements for electric road cars. “Having all these manufacturers involved in Formula E has accelerated the development of electric drivetrain components,” Chevaucher says. “Until a few years ago, most electric cars used 400-volt electrics. Higher voltages reduce losses across the system, and so improve efficiency.
“The components to support higher-voltage systems were quite rare, but the first-generation Formula E car ran at 700 volts, and the second runs at 900. After seven years pushing suppliers to develop high-voltage components, these have become cheaper and easier to obtain. So now we’re starting to see high-performance electric cars with 800-volt systems – and before very long, they’ll all have it.”