After years of waiting and many false starts, Formula E will finally unveil its mid-race charging system, which will give the cars supercharged power at a much faster rate than current road cars.
For years now, we've been hearing about the FIA's plans to introduce charging points at electric races.
In gas car racing, some series allow mid-race inflation and others do not. The World Endurance Championship, which runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans, obviously needs to fill up several times during the race. But Formula 1, which runs shorter races, ended the mid-race spread in 2010.
Plans to bring mid-race charging to Formula E began in 2021, when the FIA kicked off plans for an Electric GT racing series with 700kW charging.
But the FIA already has one electric racing series, Formula E, which was launched in 2014. At that time, each driver had two cars, and they would swap during the race for a new car with new batteries.
Battery replacement was considered, but it would have been too difficult to park on temporary racetracks in city-centre areas, such as Formula E tracks.
Then in 2018, Formula E released a new “Gen 2” car that had a battery large enough not to need charging during the race, and later a “Gen 3” car in 2022, which had more powerful, rechargeable brakes. Braking power is 600kW. Gen 3 also features an “Attack Mode” feature that allows cars to unlock more power for a short period of time each race, adding strategy and mixing up the order of the race.
That 600kW charging capability could be used for charging during the race, so Formula E said it is working on a system to allow this. It announced mid-race charging would come sometime in the 2023 season, but pushed back those plans until 2024, pushing them back again, this time to an uncertain date.
Issues involving building a charging system at temporary centers and ensuring the safety of the system (and pit stops in general, which are always a concern when cars drive fast around people). But after winter testing ahead of this season, Formula E now says the system is ready to go.
So, once again, Formula E is ready to announce that mid-race charging is definitely, absolutely, definitely, 100% certain at the upcoming Jeddah E-Prix, February 14-15 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Formula E thinks that proving this supercharger technology could help road cars charge faster, which would have thousands of benefits for electric cars in general.
The series calls the system “Pit Boost,” and it will consist of a 34-second pit stop that provides about 10% of the extra charge to the cars (about 4kWh). While 10% isn't a lot, 34 seconds isn't a lot of time either. In comparison, one of the fastest cars out there, the Ioniq 5, can charge from 10-80% in 18 minutes, meaning a 10% charge takes 2.5 minutes – five times as long as Formula E cars will handle the task .
The stop will be mandatory for all drivers to take at some point in the race, and will mean new driver selection methods. Stopping means gaining more power, which means your car won't be able to save as much energy to get to the end of the race – but it also means giving up your position on the road, which can be difficult to get back. if you do it late in the race.
However, we haven't seen it happen before, so it will be interesting to see what kind of options develop.
If you'd like to see how it's done, tune in to the Jeddah E-Prix on February 14-15 to see what happens. Doubleheader race weekend, with night races on both Saturday and Sunday, February 14-15, at 5pm UTC, 9am PST, 12pm EST, and 8pm local time. You can check how to watch the race in your area by going to the “Ways to Watch” section of Formula E. In the US, Roku should be the most reliable way to watch.
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