The first three Formula E events have hardly set the world on fire, but the series chief, Spaniard Alejandro Agag, has said he expects as many as eight new manufacturers to sign up for the second season of the electric championship.
Cars in the first season running through until next June all use batteries produced by a company owned by the Williams Formula One team, while another F1 team, McLaren, supplies the electric powertrain and electronics.
The cars have been built by France’s Spark Racing Technology under the guidance of Renault.
However, the regulations will be opened up for the second season and manufacturers allowed to compete – which would lead to Formula E meeting the requirement of motorsport’s governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) for it to be recognised as a world championship.
The FIA, and particularly its president Jean Todt, has been hugely supportive of the series.
Agag said before Formula E racing began in Beijing in September that he hoped to attract “three of four” manufacturers next season, but he is now talking of up to eight companies – including “some big names” – that he says could all bring new powertrain concepts.
“There was an application process by the FIA for future manufacturers for this championship. That finished on October 31 and 12 applications were presented,” Agag said.
“They are a mix of car manufacturers and others are technology companies — which is a really different option for us, so ones that produce batteries, electric motors or even a full powertrain – and we will find out who has been successful in the next week.
“The selected manufacturers could be in a number from anything from six to eight.
“We will then have meetings to clearly define their roadmap of the technology level of the championship.
“It’s very important to develop a five-year roadmap to define the clear direction that this championship is going to go.
“We need to decide what areas can be developed and what cannot – but the focus must remain on the electric powertrain.”
Agag is keen to retain the Spark chassis for “a number of years” in order to focus on future development of the powertrains.
“The good news is that we will have quite a number of different powertrains next year,” he said
“We will have some big names delivering those.
“We have a great idea of the direction that we’re going to go, and we’ll of course work closely with the FIA on the regulations and with the selected manufacturers.
“We will have the competition that we’ve always wanted to have that will improve the technology.”