Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The spotlight will be falling on electric SUVs in January 2021 when a new off-road racing series takes off called Extreme E, writes Mai Al Khatib-Camille.
The motorsport series, which features founding partner, premium sponsor and exclusive tyre supplier Continental, will be racing away in different parts of the world including in Al-‘Ula in Saudi Arabia.
The starting signal for the so-called Ocean stage will be given between a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Atlantic Ocean on January 22 with the series beginning on the banks of Lac Rose, not far from the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Organisers, Formula E Holdings Ltd, hope this will make motorsport an ambassador for climate protection. Extreme E is organised in cooperation with Formula E. They expect 10 teams in the first year.
By choosing routes close to threatened habitats, the Extreme E racing series aims to raise awareness of climate change among motorsport fans worldwide, as well as politicians, residents and local authorities at the venues. It also hopes to encourage them to step up their efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“By the time the event calendar was officially presented, every interested party realised that they are part of a completely new and unique project,” said Sandra Roslan, who is responsible for the Extreme E project at Continental.
“And the schedule is tight. Unforeseen delays will be almost impossible to make up for. In March 2021, we´ll start in the desert of Saudi Arabia, in May in the Himalayan Mountains. Not only must the tyres function on a completely new vehicle, but also on extreme courses in vastly different climatic environments.”
Continental is supplying special tyres for the E-racing ODYSSEY 21 car. The intensive test phase has been underway since October last year and Continental is relying on people like Swedish motorsport athlete Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky to carry them through to victory. She has successfully competed in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship and is the only woman so far to have won races in this series. The test vehicles are equipped with a custom-made model based on the successful Continental CrossContact series model.
Roslan added: “The ODYSSEY 21 is an extraordinary vehicle which is roughly similar to commercial SUVs in length, width and weight, but with its electrical equivalent of 550 HP has three times the torque of the Formula E Gen 2 vehicle.”
