Solid-state batteries are sometimes associated with Formula E’s future pathway, and while this could one day be the case, it probably won’t happen anytime soon.
These newly developed batteries are often considered next-generation, energy storage technology that uses solid, inorganic electrolytes (such as ceramics or sulfides) instead of the flammable liquid or gel polymer electrolytes found in conventional lithium-ion batteries. This structure allows for higher energy density, faster charging, and improved safety.
It has recently become a key talking point in the Formula E paddock that they may be on their way. But last week at Paul Ricard, the FIA poured a bit of its own cool dialectic fluid over such notions.
At Formula E’s recent Gen4 unveil, Formula E’s 2016-17 champion driver and staunch EV advocate Lucas di Grassi was in conversation with the FIA’s technical engineering manager, Thomas Chevaucher. He outlined some of the governing body’s stances on battery development at the Gen4 event last week.
“We have a research and development department that is doing technology monitoring on cells, so we are in contact with multiple cell suppliers across the planet to understand where the technology is going and what will be the best technology for the future,” said Chevaucher, who has worked closely with Formula E battery packs since being a technical lead for DS Performance from 2014 to 2022.
“We do think that motor court has to be at the forefront of the technology, but formulae is not developing its own cell, because we don’t want to spend tens of millions in developing the ultimate cell that will never be usable for anyone else, because it will be too expensive. So that’s not what we want to do.
“What we’re doing is that we are seeing direct contact with the research and development of all the cell suppliers across the planet. When there are new technology or new cells available, we get samples that we are testing in our own laboratories to understand their behavior to our duty cycle, because you see, the Formula E duty cycle is quite different from the production car, and we need to make sure that it is suitable.
But the FIA do think that the future could see Formula E playing a key part in pushing and advancing the pace of solid-state tech so it can be brought to a mass production in the auto industry. Of course, the trade tradeoff for this could be making the world’s only all-electric racing world championship even more attractive to manufacturers.
“Are we far away from solid state? asked Chevaucher rhetorically.
“Unfortunately, for us it will not be before tomorrow, especially because of our duty cycle, that is super, super difficult. So, there is some good solid state happening, but they are a bit limited in terms of power and power density.”
What do the promoters think?
“Here’s the trade-off with batteries,” began Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds, when he sat down with FEN at Paul Ricard last week.
“It is still in a kind of steep curve development wise in its own right. Not our battery, just the world of battery development. You look at the shift to solid-state batteries, and we’ve seen blade batteries introduced by BYD in China and we’ve seen Donut Labs with their solid-state battery announced and all this development around batteries.
“If we opened up battery today, I think the reality is people could throw an awful lot of money into battery development and that would defeat the object of what we try and do, which is keep the cost of racing sensible given the climate we’re in.”
That tallies with the view of the key stakeholders in Formula E. The cost cap is still in its infancy and integrating some serious technology as solid state batteries needs, as Chevaucher suggests, some significant study and R&D.
“That’s not to say we’d never do it,” added Dodds. “But right now it feels like if we open that up it could become very expensive and the people with the deepest pockets could get a massive on-track gain from doing it. So, we’re cautious about that.”
FEN also asked Dodds is Formula E had potentially also reached, or was about to reach a period of maturity in which the energy saving credo of its racing was becoming less important and perhaps Formula E could cultivate a more flat-out philosophy
“I think the point about energy management is completely right,” Dodds answered.
“As batteries get better and the car range extends, in theory we don’t really want to race anything over an hour because it kind of feels like that’s the attention span of the new racing fan and for most people that’s a good time period for a sporting event.
“So, if we could race up to an hour with very little requirement for energy management, all it would mean is the cars could showcase their potential at maximum speed. But energy management does bring an element of jeopardy and an element of strategy to the races, which I think makes it exciting.
“The question is, do you need to do that in every race? And it may be what you see (in Gen4) is a combination of some races that are very strategic and some races that are not very strategic at all and are just very raw in the way that they’re executed.”
Gen4 being a blank canvas for Formula E to achieve the above is a key and pertinent point here. They know that battery development can be a very expensive one and the FIA’s strategy is that safety is the priority, and using the technology makes sure that they are using it in a progressive way as well as in a safe fashion.
“Obviously, if you limit yourself to what is absolutely managed already, then you are not pushing the boundaries of the technology,” said the FIA’s Chevacuher.
“There is some risk that can be taken in motorsport that is may be a bit more difficult to be taken in production cars, and that’s why we are there, because we are there to control the environment.
“We are lucky enough to have only 22 Provisional drivers driving our car, instead of 22 million drivers driving the cars everywhere, doing anything with it. So, it’s creating, and the car operating by highly professional teams only, which is also doing opportunities to discover the technology.”
