Over in Japan, Nissan’s Formula E team has roots dating back to Renault’s involvement in the inaugural season, before the Japanese mass manufacturer took over in 2018. By then, the marque’s bestselling electric car, the Leaf, was already well established but the brand saw Formula E as a way of getting closer to customers.
“With Formula E, it’s all about zero emissions and electric, but the real key for us is that fan engagement,” said Gareth Dunsmore, Nissan’s European boss for electric vehicles, to Automotive News at the time. “There is a big difference between seeing something on TV and experiencing it or hearing about it from a friend or from a family member who has engaged with it.”
Since their arrival, Jaguar, Porsche and Nissan have all remained in the series, pledging their allegiance to another four years in the sport, extending through to at least 2030. That will see them through the next major regulation change, which will usher in the GEN4 era car sporting 600kW of power – a 250kW upgrade on the series’ current GEN3 car.
Doubling down on its investment, Nissan installed Tadashi Nishikawa, formerly responsible for the development of passenger cars in Japan, as the team’s chief powertrain engineer at the beginning of the year. “It’s my job to bring the philosophies of the two together, to help us all develop on both the Formula E and passenger vehicle operations, improving our output across the board,” says Nishikawa. “In terms of efficiency and power density, Formula E operates at a much higher level, compared to road cars. This means we can see what is possible if we only focus on performance. Then, we can think about how to adapt for passenger vehicles.”
While Formula E is yet to challenge its combustion-engined cousin for superiority in the world of motorsport, it has defied the odds and surpassed an all-important milestone in its mission to accelerate the adoption of EVs. Ten years on, the world of all-electric driving looks vastly different to how it did in 2014. As of 2022, the global market share of electric passenger vehicles was 14 per cent compared with less than half a per cent 10 years earlier, with global EV sales reaching almost 14 million in 2023 alone.
