“The next generation of electric cars will be
using that level of voltage,” said Sylvain Filippi,
Virgin Racing’s chief technology officer.
Filippi stressed that Virgin Racing is a “renewable
energy company that goes racing.”
“If this was Formula 1, I wouldn’t be doing
it,” he told The Associated Press. “I wouldn’t
be interested.”
The International Energy Agency projects that
125 million electric cars will hit the road by 2030,
up from 5.6 million in 2019.
The leading manufacturers know that, in order
for electric cars to take hold in broader society,
governmental incentive is important, but
advancement must start with the producers.
Developing cheaper, more efficient cars will
lead to more people buying them, which then
puts more clean-energy automobiles on the
streets. It’s a method that Formula E thinks can
incrementally combat climate change.
“We are getting enormous technology feedback
from there,” Dilbagh Gill, CEO of Mahindra Racing,
said in a statement. “Formula E is our laboratory.”
But, of course, basic economics take precedent,
and the manufacturers in Formula E have not yet
perfected that part of the equation. It is still not
universally cost efficient for the basic consumer
to invest in an electric car.
The average cost of an EV in 2018 was $38,775,
according to a study conducted by Kelley Blue
Book. For gas-powered vehicles, that cost was
just over $20,000.
“It’s sad, but we’re in a world where you need
to make the economic case work for everyone,
otherwise we will not make progress,” Formula
E CEO Alejandro Agag said on a panel. “People
sadly are not going to do it for the good of
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