Will lighter, greener, faster Gen3 deliver on Formula E's many promises?

In front of a crowd of journalists, cameras, and team personnel, the Gen3 Formula E car flaunted the Monaco Yacht Club’s dress code and disrobed on stage, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.

From the top down, it resembles a dart, harkening back to the days when the Brabham BT52 reigned supreme in Formula 1. It’s deceptively simple, stitching its new mod-cons into a fighter-jet inspired design (according to Formula E’s PR team) that once again turns away from a ‘normal’ single-seater aesthetic. As Formula E’s fans have become so accustomed to the Gen2 machine, the departure in design terms might take some getting used to – but there’s more than just the visuals to consider.

Formula E is very proud of its new car and, when you look at its accompanying factsheet, it might be with good reason. The big-ticket items lie in both front and rear, as the Gen3 car features electric motors at both axles. At the back, the car is powered by a 350kW motor (that’s 470bhp, for those who like their units non-SI) which Formula E estimates can yield speeds of up to 200mph – although the speedometers are unlikely to ever touch that over the course of an event. The seven manufacturers participating in the championship for the start of the new rules cycle have the responsibility of producing that motor.

At the front, Formula E has introduced a standard 250kW motor that only features for regenerative purposes. That’s 600kW of regen potential that drivers can tap into, using the time-tested method of lifting off the throttle, letting the motors suck up the kinetic energy from the wheels and stuffing it back into the battery.

Even with that additional motor, the Gen3 car is 60kg lighter than its predecessor. Part of that has been down to cutting down on battery size, as the regeneration is so much more powerful that lugging around extra cells becomes superfluous. It’s estimated that 40% of the energy used in the races will come from regenerated energy, up from around 25% for the Gen2 car.

The car’s weight is also helped by the complete removal of the rear brakes, meaning drivers will solely rely on the stopping power from the motor regeneration at the back. That should eliminate the need for the drivers to have to pull a paddle before a corner to do that, since it should be covered in the software maps automatically.

The revised aerodynamics now do away with the wheel covers used in Gen2, and in their place comes a slightly more complex front wing (by Formula E standards). There’s still no conventional rear wing – less so than the old car even, with two tailfins instead filling the space. Regardless, the car has more downforce than the previous car according to development driver Benoit Treluyer. At the launch, the three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner described his initial feelings behind the wheel of the Gen3 machinery.

Treluyer says downforce on Formula E's new Gen3 car feels good compared to its predecessor

Photo by: FIA Formula E

“Downforce is really important and I could feel really good downforce on the car compared to the [Gen2] - so it will help to go closer to the limit and it will help to overtake some of the drivers also under braking,” he explained.

“The good point also is the braking, it's much easier; I think it will be much easier for teams to manage the brakes, because it will be nearly full electric. And you will have many tools to really adjust the brake how you want it to be, which is much easier than with mechanical brakes. Because mechanical you cannot really change things like that you can with electronic brakes, where you can adjust maybe to each corner. I have many, many ideas already and that was really exciting!

“I was thinking about ‘could we try more set-up' because although I was doing development, I would have loved to do a bit more adjustment, which I really love as well. It will be a really a team effort to make the car quicker.”

Beyond the actual technical specifications of the Gen3 car, Formula E has had to blend its performance targets with those pertaining to sustainability. As the championship continues to flaunt its eco credentials, it had to put something a little bit special into the new car to expand its reach further. In that, a fair chunk of the new Formula E car is recyclable – although whether the car will fit into the correct recycling bin is another matter entirely.

As the championship continues to flaunt its eco credentials, it had to put something a little bit special into the new car to expand its reach further

New tyre supplier Hankook, which takes over the supply tender from Michelin for Gen3, will use natural rubber and recycled fibres in its tyres – and Formula E has promised that they will be fully recycled after each race. Hankook has also retained the all-weather format of tyre that Michelin was contracted to supply across Gen1 and Gen2, so the same compound will be bolted on come rain or shine.

Beyond that, the new batteries supplied by Williams Advanced Engineering have been developed to the fashionable motto of “life-cycle engineering”, which in essence means that the materials used have been selected to have some degree of post-life reusability. Since digging minerals out of the ground is hardly the most eco-friendly of pursuits, FE has also promised that they’re sustainably sourced, which presumably means that it has opted for only the finest organic, artisan lithium to cram into each individual cell. Sarcasm aside, if the materials inside can be recycled and repurposed with minimal harm to the environment, then it’s a worthy step to make.

And then there’s the bodywork. Given Formula E is largely a contact sport, debris and broken carbon fibre is a common byproduct of the close wheel-to-wheel racing seen on the city streets. For the Gen3 bodywork, the composite lay-ups now feature alternative fibres such as linen, and repurposed bits of old Gen2 ‘waste’ bodywork – cutting the overall emissions involved in producing car parts. And, in the considerably likely event that more debris is shed, that can be recycled too. It’s a continuous re-cycle, apparently.

Jaguar has revealed a camo concept livery for the Gen3 car, which is lighter, faster and boasts excellent sustainability credentials

Photo by: Jaguar Racing

Of course, trying to mesh sustainability aspirations with performance targets is a difficult pursuit, but that’s something that Formula E and the FIA have tried to work on in tandem. Chief engineer Alessandra Ciliberti explained that it was imperative that the car was not made too heavy with the sustainability targets, but that the Gen3 package could yield a considerable upswing in general eco-friendliness.

“We're making a step change and many areas such as performance, weight, sustainability, efficiency, everything has been thoroughly worked on this car, and especially the performance is massively increased compared to the existing Gen2,” Ciliberti explained to Autosport.

“We're trying to do our best in meeting [Formula E’s] requests, while still keeping in mind the technical target. So what you don't want is to make this car too heavy, you don't want the car to lose any of the technical and performance criteria that you have set in the technical brief. But by working together and closely throughout the process, you can find ways of achieving our technical targets by while also enabling them to express the best in terms of sustainability.

“The main challenges were around making this car lighter while adding parts. Because we have the the front powertrain kit, which currently is not in the Gen2 car and so we added parts, we’ve increased the power. But despite that, we could reduce the weight of each and every component. The monocoque is much safer than today but smaller; the battery is outputting and retaining a lot more power, but being smaller and lighter. And thanks to that the wheelbase is shorter, and the car is more agile overall, and that's really the best we could expect.”

So where does Gen3 stand in the family tree of Formula E cars? The Gen1 car was largely a means to get the series off the ground, borrowing styling cues from numerous pre-established racing categories. The current Gen2 car moved that on, hiking up the power and creating an entirely new face for the championship with its own unique visage. Gen3, it seems, has moved that on even further – giving Formula E more bang for its buck and pushing its credentials on both the performance and sustainability fronts.

And, with the manufacturer count smaller than at the zenith of the Gen2 era, Gen3 must deliver on all of the promises that Formula E has set out to ensure that other manufacturers consider the outlay on going racing in an all-electric arena worthwhile. It, on paper, can do that – especially as the field of e-mobility continues to grow. Looking for signs of growth, however, will have to wait when the new cars hit the track in anger.

For now, 10 more races remain in Gen2’s tenure, before the cars are put out to pasture after four seasons of service. After that, one only hopes that Gen3 can deliver on the excitement it promises.

The Gen3 era will be a significant one for the championship after losing significant OEM support from Audi, BMW and Mercedes

Photo by: FIA Formula E