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Formula E only adopted its second-generation electric race car at the beginning of last season, but motorsport is finalizing plans for the next iteration, called Gen3, which will debut in season nine (2022/2023). The plan is to make the car more powerful and lightweight, with more ability to regenerate energy by braking. It will even adopt fast charging mid-stroke. That’s all an improvement on the Gen2 car, but here at Ars, we can’t help but feel that Formula E is missing out on a chance to be bolder. And we are not alone. Season 3 champion Lucas di Grassi has his own idea of the direction Gen3 should take, and it’s one the crowd of electric vehicles is likely to like.
Formula E plan
The Formula E plan for the Gen3 car is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Power is going up, with 350kW (469hp) available in qualifying, compared to the current 250kW (335hp), which will put speeds somewhere between Formula 3 and Formula 2. (The output power during 45 races minutes is limited to 300kW / 402hp.) The battery will become considerably lighter, weighing in at 397 pounds (180kg) compared to the current 547 pounds (248kg), albeit with a slight reduction in 51kWh capacity.
The battery will be able to charge at 600kW, more than double the power of even the best electric vehicles for sale today. That will allow for a quick mid-run charge, which will add 4kWh in 30 seconds. And cars will be able to regenerate energy under slowdown at the same power level, thanks to a 250kW generator unit on the front axle that works in conjunction with the 350kW engine generator unit (MGU). However, the front wheels will only regenerate power – there is no plan to allow cars to deploy power to the front wheels, unlike almost all high-performance electric road cars for sale or in development.
Grassi’s plan
The way the rules are being formed means that teams will have to develop their own rear MGU, but that front generator unit will be produced by a single supplier.
“What I really don’t understand is that some key features that could be commercially relevant, and you need R&D to be there, are used as an excuse for cost-cutting measures,” Di Grassi told me when we spoke recently. “If you have a MGU up front, there is no point not using it to power the car.”
One of the main complaints made in Formula E has been that the cars are not fast enough. While that’s not a problem now with the Gen2 car, di Grassi still believes there is room for improvement. “I want Formula E cars to be very impressive in acceleration, which electric cars are good at. Any electric car that costs $ 100,000 in two or three years will accelerate from zero to 100 km / h (62 mph) faster than Formula E because it’s four-wheel drive. My vision is that from zero to 200 km / h (125 mph): Formula E should be equivalent to Formula 1, “he said.
If it depended on di Grassi, the Gen3 car would use identical front and rear MGUs, both at the current output of 250kW (335hp). Cars could regenerate and deploy that power on both axles.
“I did the math,” he said to me. “And with a 55-45 front-to-back weight distribution and 500kW (670hp) power, at the current weight, we would accelerate to 200 very close to Formula 1. For me, that would be incredible.” (In fact, the 500kW Volkswagen ID R suggests you’re absolutely right, given how fast it accelerates.)
“The teams have already developed a very, very efficient and very good powertrain for seasons seven and eight. Why not use the same powertrain and then produce one more? [for each car] and then put it on the front axle, instead of producing a new one with 350kW? So my proposal was to at least try to use the technology that has already been developed, “he explained.
# Gen3 #FIAFormulaE should be:
– MGU 250kw symmetrical front + rear with standard standard differential;
– 4 power wheels and modular regeneration;
– Without mechanical brakes;
– floor battery ~ 50kwh 10C input / output with fast charge;
– Mobile aerodynamics and common software controlled electronic kinematics / std– LUCAS DI GRASSI (@LucasdiGrassi) July 4, 2020
But it would not allow cars to use both MGUs at full power at each event. “For example, Paris cannot reach 500kW,” he explained, referring to the narrow layout of the urban circuit used in the French city. “Then you cut off the front axle; you say, ‘Look, in Paris, just the rear axle, 250kW, like we did today.’ And then you go to Mexico, a 1: 500kW grade circuit in qualifying.”
“I mean, it could be any race, you can think of a different power,” he continued. “It’s even good to mix up the grid because maybe one team has a better setup for the rear axle, the other has a better setup for all-wheel drive. So you can think of different kinds of rules [that] It will not put pressure on the developer, because if it reaches the standard 350kW, the cost of making a race track in Paris will double because it needs runoff areas that are twice as long. You need to resurface everything to make it super flat. We cannot compete in Hong Kong, we cannot compete in Paris with 350kW. It must be modular so that we can continue to compete on the tracks we run, and on the tracks where we can increase power, we will increase power. “
Active aero, common shock absorbers
Another thing Di Grassi would like to see is the adoption of a common damper on all teams.
“The amount of money we spend on them, just because the shock absorbers are free [in the rules], it’s ridiculous, “he said.” We take the car to seven-post platforms, put the car there, say each track has a different damper, and so on. So it’s a great cost. You have to control a lot of things that shouldn’t be free, and then use the money saved in these areas to make it more relevant. “
That would include an electronically controlled suspension, something that is almost universally prohibited in racing but is common in modern cars. “This is really very cheap to produce today, but only because it was banned in F1 [in 1993] because it was dangerous it has nothing to do with Formula E now, “said di Grassi.” For example, having an electronically controlled stabilizer bar is very simple to do. It takes a solenoid that changes the bar and has a huge effect. “
Solenoids would also power active aerodynamics, another area where road cars have left the racing world behind. This could add to the racing spectacle, with cars testing their moving fins on the grid in the same way that drivers verify that their moving fins and rudders work before takeoff.
Standard differences and a skateboard design
Production EVs rarely have differentials, but they do in Formula E. “And because the differential is so important in Formula E, we spend a lot of money on research and development making a special differential,” Di Grassi told me. “I think it should be a common part because this is very relevant to performance and comes at a huge cost.”
His battery design plan is also more relevant to the road than the current Gen3 plan by using a skateboard design, with batteries on the car floor between the axles. The Formula E plan for the Gen3 machine, like the Gen1 and Gen2 cars (as well as the VW ID. R) basically only fits one battery in a chassis that is quite similar to single-seaters powered by internal combustion engines. (This would make the powertrain design similar to the Roborace car, which uses a symmetrical design as described.)
“I really believe that electric cars and electric race cars have to be an inherently different design from a combustion engine. And right now, what the FIA is doing is designing a conventional race car and swapping out the combustion engine internal by the electric motor and the battery, almost like 10 years ago; when people made the first electric cars, they took out the motor and put the electric motor, they put the battery in the trunk [trunk], and they said it was an electric car. Then other manufacturers came and made the battery on the ground, “he said.
There are no mechanical brakes for a better race.
The current Gen3 plan doesn’t require mechanical brakes on the rear axle, but di Grassi would go further. It would remove the friction brakes entirely. Kind of.
“Actually, I would put a special mechanical brake on the differential as a safety device,” he told Ars. “When I said there were no mechanical brakes, I really couldn’t tweet exactly what I wanted to say. But I would put a very thin single disc on both differentials, almost like a hydraulic lock. So if the battery fails [and you can’t regen]It basically locks both differentials, and the car just stops. “
He also believes that the car could use a supercapacitor that would be able to store energy at the start of the race when the battery is 100 percent charged. He suggests that if his ideas were implemented, it would actually improve careers.
“Well, you lose a bit of performance, because you are not going to be able to brake so late because the car cannot take more than 500kW at high speeds,” said di Grassi. “But, I mean, you need to do something new. It actually goes in the direction that people love, which increases stopping distance. One way to increase stopping distance is to actually limit stopping power. If not you do have mechanical brakes, they all break sooner. So actually, overtaking becomes even better in this case. “
I don’t know about you, but I think he’s doing something.
