Engine sound is amazing. This is the first time I have heard tire screech in a race. I wonder why. :-)
The problems seems to be battery capacity. They have to switch cars. Since the racing is usually done on a closed circuit they could implement inductive charging in the future( and perhaps power-ups ). Who wouldn't want to watch that?
Color me old-fashioned, but I think this sounds horrible. The noise is annoyingly like a high-pitched screech. Grating on the ears.
Then again, F1 cars have terrible sound as well. Too high rev to have a nice sound.
edit: I find it interesting that they have a Senna and a Prost. Coincidence?
edit2: their top speeds are apparently also over 140km/h lower than F1 (225km/h vs. ~360km/h). I wonder why they decided to limit the cars to that and if it's ever getting raised?
It'll only get raised with additional battery technology, I think. Around a normal track, where an F1 car will get up to that speed, it will use about 1.7kg of fuel per lap, and this corresponds roughly to about 8kWh per lap, taking thermal efficiency into account.
Formula E cars have about 200kg of batteries (a Tesla has >500kg), and these provide about 28kWh - which would run out a little after 3 laps, or perhaps less than that if the incredibly high rate of discharge caused it to catch fire. You couldn't feasibly add too much more battery capacity without weighing the car down too much.
You can get an appreciable fraction of the speed of an F1 car with a fraction of the power, and the difference is even less noticeable if you're on a street circuit; for example around Monaco an F1 car will use only 1.2kg fuel, with a much higher drag aero package.
The Formula E driver lineup is a bit embarrassing, in that almost exactly half of the drivers are failed or retired F1 drivers.
Also, F1 drivers since the turbos returned are much lower pitched, since they rev only up to I think 12000rpm now - you might be surprised!
Bruno Senna is Ayrton's nephew. Nicolas Prost is Alain Prost's son (and Alain is visible in some of the shots cheering on his son from the garage). There are a number of other close ties to F1 in both the car hardware and technology and many of the drivers.
Most of the limits on the cars are due to battery technology.
I read that in the article. I'd also like to read why a five-speed transmisison is beneficial on these cars - I suppose the motors still have a RPM-based powerband, even if it isn't as drastic as gas engines?
Electric motors do have a constant power region and its ideal to operate there. I would expect teams to modify their transmissions to better fit their motor as more parts of the car are opened up for modification.
The engines do have a fairly flat torque curve however, so you can get away with a constant speed reduction, which gives a decrease in weight (like the Tesla). One reason they might run a transmission is so that they constantly run the engine in the most energy efficient zone, giving them a longer battery life.
A flat torque curve means you get more power at higher revs. Power = torque x revs.
If torque is the same at 5k revs vs 10k (to pick numbers from thin air), when you downgear 10k 2:1, you double the effective torque over 5k at 1:1, for the same output revs.
It does not work like that. To run twice the speed, you run twice the voltage so you run half the amps. Torque scales almost linearly with amps. With the same power input, the power output is all about the motors limits versus your conversion efficiency.
The battery layout and chemistry will limit the actual power that can be delivered to the powertrain (discharge rate). A faster electric car is not one geared higher, but one which converts the most of this energy into motion.
Formula E is mostly street circuits, so there's a limit to what can be done in terms of inductive charging.
FWIW:
> The next regulation progression – scheduled for season three - will see manufacturers extend their efforts to the batteries, with the objective being the use of a single car per driver during races from the fifth season.
Engine sound is amazing. This is the first time I have heard tire screech in a race. I wonder why. :-)
The problems seems to be battery capacity. They have to switch cars. Since the racing is usually done on a closed circuit they could implement inductive charging in the future( and perhaps power-ups ). Who wouldn't want to watch that?