Extreme E outlines the 10 countries it's assessing for replacement rounds

The fledgling all-electric SUV off-road racing series has been forced to call off the final two events of the campaign amid the COVID-19 difficulties posed by South America.

Tightened travel restrictions meant championship organisers were unable to recently complete recces for the Amazon X-Prix in Brazil (23-24 October) and a season finale Glacier X-Prix (11-12 December) in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Both have been dropped, leaving the next event in Greenland (28-29 August) as the only remaining round currently locked in the schedule.

However, 10 countries have been selected as alternative locations, including Scotland and Russia, while talks with Egypt, Morocco and Kenya could lead to a second event in Africa after Senegal.

A statement supplied exclusively to Autosport read: “As a result of the postponement of Extreme E’s South American X-Prix races, we are working hard on confirming replacement locations.

“Those under evaluation include Iceland, Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Finland, Morocco, Egypt, Italy, Andorra, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Russia.

“We look forward to updating the remaining season one schedule once all proper assessments have been made.”

Jutta Kleinschmidt, Mattias Ekstrom, ABT CUPRA XE, Molly Taylor, Johan Kristoffersson, Rosberg X Racing, and Cristina Gutierrez, Sebastien Loeb, X44

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images

Autosport understands that Turkey, Sardinia and Marbella had also been initially considered.

A visit to Scotland would tie in with Glasgow hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November.

This context was used for Prince William to test drive the standardised Odyssey 21 E-SUV machine at Knockhill recently.

News of the cancellation of two South American rounds fell on the same day that McLaren Racing announced it would enter Extreme E for 2022.

Previous disruption for the maiden calendar include the debut event in Saudi Arabia being pushed back from 20-21 March to 3-4 April.

Argentina itself was a replacement for a proposed event in Nepal, which had to be dropped due to the "complexity of getting to the proposed race region".

However, the championship has committed to a round in Nepal in the future.

Championship co-founder Alejandro Agag said of the cancelled South American rounds: “We’ve been closely monitoring the situation regarding all Extreme E locations for 2021 and have chosen to make this pre-emptive decision on racing in South America this year.

“We would also like to thank the local authorities in Brazil and Argentina who have been supportive throughout the whole process and we hope we can return in 2022.”