The same engineers who develop the drivetrains for electric production vehicles are also responsible for the drivetrains in the race cars. Examples of the successful transfer of technology between the Formula E project and production development include new findings regarding energy management and energy efficiency, the transfer of software for power electronics from racing to production, and an improvement in the power density of the e-motors.

BMW says that when it comes to the development of e-drivetrains, they have essentially exhausted the opportunities for this form of technology transfer in the competitive environment of Formula E.

Furthermore, BMW plans to focus on the comprehensive scaling of the electric vehicles production. BMW Group plans to have put one million electric vehicles on the roads by the end of 2021. The goal is to increase this figure to seven million by 2030, of which two-thirds will be fully-electric.

Season 7 will see the BMW iFE.21 and drivers Maximilian Günther (GER) and Jake Dennis (GBR) attempting to write another history chapter for the Motorsport brand.

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“Formula E has accompanied the transformation phase at Audi,” says Markus Duesmann. “Today, electromobility at the four rings is no longer a dream of the future, but the present.”

That electrified present means competing in new forms of motorsport and not just looking toward the future of what can be. Instead, Audi is looking at what sort of new and innovative ways it can get its e-tron technology into motorsport right now.

“This is why we are taking the next step in electrified motorsport by facing the most extreme conditions. The many technical freedoms offered by the Dakar Rally provide a perfect test laboratory for us in this respect.”

The Audi e-tron Dakar Rally racer will be driven entirely by an electric powertrain, however, as you might imagine, it will need more than just a standard battery to handle the extreme conditions of Dakar. A purely battery electric vehicle could never finish the 7,646 km (4,751 mile) rally across Saudi Arabia, which is where the 2021 Dakar Rally will be held.

So while its drivetrain will be entirely electric, driven by battery power, that will get power from an energy converter and a TFSI engine. So it will essentially be an electric car with a gasoline range extender. Stopping off to charge wouldn’t be ideal in a rally race through the desert, so the range extender is the only way to have an electric racer.

The most explosive news in connection with Audi joining the Dakar Rally 2022 comes from Motorsport-Total.com. According to the report, Audi want to realize their rally project together with the X-Raid team. The corresponding report has so far neither been confirmed nor denied. Of course, the implications are quite high considering that the X-Raid has been the BMW and MINI partner for a long time. Also, the X-Raid owner Sven Quandt is one of the largest BMW Group shareholders.

We’re extremely excited to see what becomes of this Audi e-tron Dakar Rally racer and how well it does in the upcoming race. Audi will be the first manufacturer to enter an electric car in Dakar, so not only is it making history for the brand but also for all of motorsport.

[Source: QuattroDaily]

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However, with the onset of global and economic pressures on the automotive world to become more efficient, traditional motorsport is starting become somewhat superfluous. So a new style of racing has been born, Formula E, and it’s very exciting in its own way.

Formula E is, at its core, F1 with electric cars. The cars are very similar to F1 cars, with similar designs, aerodynamics and performance, except for that they’re a bit heavier, thanks to the batteries, and completely silent. So it makes for a slightly different race than you might be used to watching from F1.

In the past, we spoke with Nelson Piquet Jr., last season’s Formula E Champion and current driver for NEXTEV, about the new sport and it was very interesting to hear the differences between the new all electric sport and the classic one we all know. Especially coming from a driver who’s raced in F1, Nascar and now Formula E.

Thing like how all the technology in Formula E is very similar between teams, because manufacturers haven’t really separated themselves too much in the EV area just yet, so it more comes down to driver skill than the car’s performance. Also, the budget of a Formula E car is about 1/10th of the budget of a Formula One car, so the onus is more on the drivers  to win than the team as a whole.

Now, if you’re thinking that Formula E might not be that exciting to watch, thanks to the lack of noise coming from the cars, the FIA is determined to prove you wrong. To try and bring more attention to the all-electric sport, the FIA is allowing visitors to get far closer to the action than they ever could at F1. VIP ticket holders can get access to to a pit walk, they can even get close enough to the fence to be within touching distance, others actually get to meet the drivers, there are autograph sessions and even virtual eRaces against the real racing drivers.

Formula E is also making it possible to experience anything, anywhere, through the power of virtual reality. So the FIA is doing everything it can to increase popularity within the sport.

It’s also becoming a large testbed for new technologies for both itself and the automotive world. Manufacturers can use Formula E to test out new performance electric technology, just as they currently do for tradition performance tech in F1. Current manufacturers in Formula E are also working on autonomous technology for fully autonomous racing, which is said to become a side-program next season. If you think electric race cars are weird, imagine having self-driving race cars. It will be like watching your friends play with RC cars when you were a little kid.

There’s actually quite a lot of optimism in Formula E, as it’s still such an untapped sport. It has so much potential to improve not only racing, but the entire automotive industry as a whole. If more manufacturers jump on board, the amount of EV technology on the market will explode, as motorsport is one of that largest driving factors in automotive innovation.

This sort of new innovation in both electric powertrains and digitalization feeds right in BMW’s future efforts. The Bavarian brand is one of the pioneers in the industry, when it comes to alternative fuel, digitalization and connectivity, so programs like Formula will only increase the brand’s efforts. BMW has been out of F1 for quite some time now, but it’s like that BMW could certainly step into Formula E to some extent. It’s unlikely that BMW actually creates a team and competes, but the brand could help to develop some technologies for a team or the sport as a whole.

Formula E may never reach the level of popularity or excitement that F1 currently has, in fact it likely never will. F1 has too rich a history already. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be an exciting sport on its own, without having to constantly be compared to Formula One. Whether F1 fans like it or not, electric racing is the future of motorsport and Formula E is laying the groundwork for the future.

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