Formula E 2014/2015 season

No, I'm saying the biggest area is batteries. It's also one if the biggest reason Fe was set up. It's also the area that needs improving the most to improve the support.

It all centres around the batteries to exclude that is rather dumb. The whole point if Fe is to promote electric vehicles, that looks great when they change halfway through the race, are comparatively slow etc. Batteries are the biggest focus and as such should be the biggest thing to develop and renew ever year to the latest and greatest.
 
Are there batteries available that would allow them to run the full race in a single car? The FIA stance suggests they don't think there will be until the 5th season (2018). For as long as they still have to run 2 cars, there's no point changing the battery technology.
 
No, but several teams have said they could get 30% more energy next season, just by using up to date mass produced batteries. Let alone if a team paid some university to build several thousand prototype ones.

30% increase is a huge gain, in the weakest area if the series.
 
Power output of the motors is limited, isn't it? So they wouldn't run harder?

Even if they get battery technology that allows them to run 90% of the race, it still requires 2 cars. Until they can do the whole race on 1 charge increasing battery technology would just be a bit pointless.

Plus, the FE teams are an insignificant blip on the global battery development scene. No FE team is going to provide a breakthrough that the likes of LG Chem, Panasonic, etc haven't already covered. Leave the battery technology to the expert multi billion pound companies.
 
What rubbish, off course they can run harder, as they currently have to power save.

Increasing battery is the most vital aspect and they aren't waiting till they can do the whole race, they're opening it up in season 3. It should be season 2. It makes zero sense to delay it.

Most of the ground breaking research is university that could really do with money and attest beds. That Fe can certainly pay for.

Even the like of those massive corporations could use Fe. It takes a long time to bring in mass production(most say 5-7years). In the mean time Fe could use small production batches, show off future tech which is on it's way to the public, whilst giving such companies massive amounts of data on the cells.
 
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A quick Google suggests Panasonic and other Japanese partners are investing $1bn in batteries. Do FE teams have that sort of money? And FE is not a test bed, its only 10 races a year.
 
And it takes 5+ years to bring prototypes to mass production. Off course Fe could be used as a test bed and advertising of near future products.
 
And nothing else has the performance boost of batteries. It's physically impossible, even making an electric motor half the weight and 100% efficient isn't going to give anything near the performance boost of better batteries.

30% boost is available now off the shelf.

EVs don't have a drive train issue, they have an energy storage issue.
 
It would appear the FIA disagree. Or more specifically, they disagree when the aim is to secure the long term sustainability of a risky and fragile race series built on new technology.
 
Number one rule should be open up battery development, everything else is a distance second priority.

Personally I would like to see it open, if they don't want it open that's fine, but ti restrict the one area that the sport is meant to speed up is dumb.


If they want it heavily restricted open up battery rather than drive train.
 
Would that be sustainable, or even acheiveable? Are any of the chosen manufacturers involved in battery development?

Perhaps the FIA have chosen to open the regs in the area the people who want to be involved are already skilled in?
 
And now many are actually directly involved? Rather than getting partners/third parties in. Now many teams actually do development as there main day to day job. that argument is silly. Swap Williams for Panasonic.

Several teams have been excited about the batteries they can run in the second season, now they can't.
 
Presumably batteries they haven't developled though? As you have said, they are off the shelf.

What do you mean "swap Williams for Panasonic"?

Your acting as if they are never going to upgrade batteries, when it's just 1 more year and that area will open up.
 
Actually, the FIA haven't said battery's won't change, just that they aren't going to be open to development.

If everyone is using the same battery, how do we know they won't all have this 30% better kind? Have they made a statement on that yet? The teams could all get new batteries and be allowed to develop the powertrain.
 
Skeeter said:
Presumably batteries they haven't developled though? As you have said, they are off the shelf.

What do you mean "swap Williams for Panasonic"?

Your acting as if they are never going to upgrade batteries, when it's just 1 more year and that area will open up.
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No I'm not acting like they aren't going to ever upgrade batteries, as I said they are opening it up in season 3. Batteries however should be the priority not the second.
They've developed batteries with 1000% the capacity, in the labs.

What I mean is your statement was pretty silly. All you do is move the focus form one company to another, depending what the focus is on.

Yes they might increase battery storage, but it isn't going to be anywhere near the gains possible if it was open.
 
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