An Inside Look at the Formula E Fully-Electric Race Cars, Just Arrived in Brooklyn for the ePrix

Yesterday, the ribbon was cut at the New York City FIA Formula E Qualcomm ePrix which will take place this weekend at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. We previously shared some of the behind the scenes work that has gone into preparing the city and the chosen site for the first ever international car race in New York City. Yesterday, we got a close up look at the new Formula E Fully-Electric race car as the teams prepare for the qualifying rounds on Saturday.

The cars were shipped in yellow carboxes from Berlin to Indiana, then to Brooklyn.

The unpacking begins

The cars weight 320 kilograms with 200 kilograms of lithium-ion battery cells, which is equivalent to the the weight of 300 laptop batteries or 4,000 mobile phone batteries. The cars take 60 minutes to charge the battery, manufactured by Williams Advanced Engineering, to 100% and last 25 minutes in race mode. All ten race teams will use the same battery, which runs to a maximum power of 200 kW (268 kbp). But in race mode, the cars will run at a maximum of 170 kW.

Each team has four cars and there is a mid-race car change. The chassis of the car is made of carbon fiber/aluminum honeycomb composite and have been crash tested to the same standards as Formula 1. The bodywork, wings and suspension are made by SPARK Racing Technology, a French company created specifically for Formula E.

All teams are using custom made 18″ Michelin tires, also made for Formula E, which can be used in both wet and dry conditions. This reduces the number of tires needed compared to Formula 1, where the traditional tires cannot be used in wet conditions, requiring the stocking of additional tire types to account for potential weather.

A sneak peek at the race track:

Read more about the Formula E here. If you are a Red Hook area resident, you can get one of the 1,000 community passes being offered by the NYCEDC.