New Zealand driver Mitch Evans admits Formula E may struggle to compete on the same stage as Formula One, but as far as the manufacturers are concerned it is the future.
The 27 year old is just about to wind up his fifth season in the all-electric championship.
Jaguar driver Mitch Evans Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Electric cars are the fastest growing sector of the motor industry and it's the same in the motorsport area.
Formula E was conceived in 2011 and this year there are twelve teams involved, including Porsche, Nissan, Mercedes, Audi, BMW and Evan's team Jaguar.
He's just signed a new deal with Jaguar believing that it has a great future especially with the advances in technology.
Evans has been in Formula E for five years now and he says in that time there has been an incredible change in what's under the bonnet.
"Battery tech has advanced a lot, they're getting lighter, they're getting smaller and obviously the cars can put out more power and more range which is really impressive."
Formula E drivers use to have to change cars mid race because of the poor life of the batteries, but that is no longer an issue.
"What's quite fascinating is that we can convert the technology between what we run in a Formula E car and the cars you see on the roads and so we are developing the future cars for the automotive industry."
The Jaguar motor company plans to be fully electric by 2025 and Evans says it's obvious that motorsport is the best test ground for any form of road car technology.
"During the last Formula E season we were able to optimise the Jaguar I-Pace (road car) to give it another 20 percent in range just through a software update and that doesn't take into account the hardware we're also developing on the track.
"It's pretty cool technology and it's developing at such a fast rate that and so it's quite special to be a part of that process."
Mitch Evans Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Sales plummeted the last couple of years because of the pandemic and Evans says that has probably led to manufacturers investing more in the future of the motor industry like Formula E.
"It's quite unique for a motor sport championship to be so relevant to the motor industry... it's more than racing we're literally testing the future tech for what we'll see on the road in the coming years.
"Obviously hydrogen is the next fuel solution that a lot of big manufacturers are looking into, but definitely for the near future EV's are going to be leading the way.
"The budgets in Formula One are huge and the technology is completely irrelevant to anything you see on the road, so Formula E is affordable for manufacturers and the circuit is going to some of the biggest cities in the world to promote electric technology and so it is relevant."
However Evans does admit that Formula E and the technology is still young and so as far as the fans are concerned, Formula One is going to be hard to overtake in the near future.
"Formula One has built up a huge fan base over the decades and it has a lot of history, however I expect Formula E to bridge the gap.
"I was brought up with V8's and combustion engines and petrol, but obviously times change and we're in this massive revolution in the automotive industry and now the motorsport industry so you have to be open minded.
"The great thing about Formula E is just how unpredictable and exciting the racing is and it's only going to get faster."
Evans heads into the final round of the 2021 Formula E Championship in Berlin this weekend in eighth place, just behind fellow New Zealander Nick Cassidy who drives for Envision Virgin Racing.
