Sir Richard Branson Wants To Change The World With Electric Race Cars

Twenty racecars that sounded like giant electric knives sliced through the streets of downtown Miami, emitting exactly zero emissions. Despite the fact that the tropical sun was hot enough to steam empanadas, the bleachers were full. For a $20 admission price, standing-room-only fans lined three-deep along the track. Nearly every balcony of every high-rise along the route was equally stuffed. Several dozen people even lined up on highway overpasses until police chased them away. They wanted to see the first-ever North American running of Formula E, the all-electric racing series Sir Richard Branson and others believe to be the future.

Formula E differs from traditional auto racing in pretty much every way. All 20 drivers operate the exact same car, a toothpick-thin Spark-Renault SRT_01E. The cars go zero to 62 in three seconds, can reach 140 mph, run with a top-secret motor designed by McLaren, and balance on bespoke yet skinny 18-inch Michelin tires, designed to work in both wet and dry conditions.

From there, it gets strange. The cars of Formula E generate up to 270 hp, but must be operated in power-saving “race mode,” which barely generates 200hp. Formula E fans can vote with hashtags on social media to provide a “Fan Boost,” which allows favorite drivers to generate 30 extra kilowatts of power for five seconds sometime in the race. But even those drivers don’t win unless they properly conserve energy. It’s like high-speed hypermiling, with a battery that’s powered by sea-algae glycerin.

This unusual battery can only last for approximately half the 39-lap race, with each lap covering approximately 1.5 kilometers. It can’t be recharged quickly enough to get it back onto the track. So en lieu of a battery change (or, for that matter, a tire change, which is neither allowed nor necessary), drivers simply pit, get out of their car, get into a fresh car with exactly the same specs, and continue on.

Therefore, the race features ten teams, 20 drivers, and 40 completely identical cars. Next year, teams can fiddle with the gearbox, suspension, and motor, and in 2017 they will be able to use their own batteries. But for now, they’re all the same. Whizzing through the streets of Monte Carlo and Buenos Aires, among other Bond-movie locations, they represent the world’s most glamorous display of electric-car potential.

The racing community, though, remains skeptical over this alien form of motorsports. For many, the roar of a combustion engine is part of the allure, and while Formula E is fast for an electric car, its lap times are akin to lower-rung junior open wheel formulas. It’s not been easy to digest for the diehard racing fan.

But Formula E has more than a dash of glamour to it, with an extra E-boost provided by Sir Richard Branson, who’s fielding a competitive Virgin Racing Team. Sir Richard was on hand last weekend in Miami for the festivities. In a poorly attended press conference on the floor of American Airlines Arena, he sounded coolly messianic in his fervor for Formula E, which he says can be a major driver of social change, and not just in racing.

“We’re trying to work toward a world that’s carbon-neutral by 2050,” Sir Richard said. “Unless you have racing like this, we’ll never get there. Hopefully, 10 to 20 years from now, the smell of exhaust will be something as much a thing of the past as cigarette smoke. That’s what we’re trying to get to.”