Jaguar Will Tear Up Formula E In This Tron-Like Race Car

Those who’ve dismissed Formula E due to its silent nature and lack of internal combustion engines have missed out on some genuinely great racing - for season one, every car was completely identical, so the differences were solely down to the drivers and their setups. For season two, teams are allowed to develop their own electric motors - amongst other things - which has encouraged new manufacturers to join the series. The latest big name to sign up is Jaguar, which will enter the championship’s third season in 2016.

The British manufacturer has now confirmed rumours that it is returning to motorsport in Formula E, which Jaguar plans to use as a real world performance test bed for its electric vehicle technology. EVs will play a big part in the future of the company, as it believes that electrification and lightweight technologies are quickly becoming vital in a rapidly changing automotive world.

Nick Rogers, Group Engineering Director for Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Electric vehicles will absolutely play a role in Jaguar Land Rover’s future product portfolio and Formula E will give us a unique opportunity to further our development of electrification technologies. The Championship will enable us to engineer and test our advanced technologies under extreme performance conditions.”

Jaguar is teaming up with Williams Advanced Engineering for its Formula E team to learn from its vast performance EV experience; the pair have already worked together on the exciting Jaguar C-X75 plug-in hybrid concept car. During the announcement, Jaguar also confirmed it’ll build a ‘portfoilo of electric vehicles,’ so expect to see performance variants utilising electric motors as well as economy-based EVs.

What this means for us is that while electric vehicles might seem like the end of everything we love about cars, there are manufacturers working towards the implementation of performance electrification. With what we know about the way EVs can deliver torque, this is a very exciting time for a new generation of performance car.