What's the news?
You're looking at the new BMW iFE.18, which the company will field in the upcoming fifth Formula E championship, with works drivers António Félix da Costa and Alexander Sims. BMW has been a partner of the electric race series since it began, supplying its i8 as the official safety car and i3 as the medical car, but the company chose not to participate in racing until the drivers could go a full race distance without swapping cars. Until now, each driver would pit stop during the race and quickly change to a second car to continue, due to the limitations of the battery.
In Formula E, the teams run identical cars for the most part, with limited modification allowed. The upcoming season sees the debut of the Gen2 car. Aside from the new look, which includes a 'Halo' to protect drivers, the battery capacity is twice that of the older cars. There is up to 250kW, or 335hp, of power with top speeds of 280km/h and 0-100km/h taking only 2.8 seconds. Instead of set laps per race, there is a 45-minute-plus-one-lap set distance.
"BMW's expertise in the BMW iFE.18 is primarily in the heart of the vehicle, the drivetrain," said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. "We told the production engineers designing the electric motor and inverter: 'Forget about all the considerations you would usually have in development, and just think about performance, the greatest efficiency, the lowest weight. When we've reached that point, you can think about how to integrate that into series production later on.' Our BMW Motorsport engineers designed the rear-axle including suspension and had to integrate the drivetrain in the rear end of the race car. The knowledge we gain in this highly competitive environment then flows straight back into production development. This is the perfect implementation of our motto: from the racetrack to the road."
In developing the electric motor and drivetrain for the iFE.18, BMW used expertise already gained from the BMW i3, along with techniques used in its pre-production facilities to build a power unit that is highly efficient in both power delivery and cooling. As in most forms of motorsport, weight plays a crucial factor in the iFE.18 car, and BMW admits that the motor could have been made lighter, but it was decided to make it as reliable as possible. BMW still believes that it has one of the lighter cars on the grid, allowing them to run more ballast than its rivals.
Anything else?
The BMW iFE.18 will make its race debut at the first race of the season on 15 December in Ad Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. BMW i Andretti Motorsport will run the cars as a works team with Roger Griffiths acting as Team Principal.