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The Formula E Is Getting Electric Trucks from the Creator of Roborace

The whole point of Formula E was to promote the idea of electric vehicles by showing they can also be fun, not just the boring environmentally-conscious choice.
Charge e-truck for Formula E 1 photo
Photo: Charge
After a fairly successful first season, the second is now ongoing and the public has not been disappointed. Spared by the huge gaps in car performances that have marred the Formula One, its electric counterpart is a very competitive series where driver skills are the main differentiator between winners and losers.

All this means that the silent competition has reached its goal, but its relevance was somehow diluted by the fact that every other vehicle behind the electric race cars themselves still used an internal combustion engine. So, yeah, having electric car races is great, but what's the point if they can't sustain themselves without the gas burners?

That problem seems to be headed towards a (partial) solution as British electric truck maker Charge has struck a deal with the Formula E management. The first e-trucks created for the electric racing competition will be unveiled during this weekend's Paris race.

Charge will provide a tiny fleet of electric trucks to be used for drivers' parades and for carrying cars and equipment within the grounds of each race. The company is sponsored by Kinetik, a firm that has also backed the only racing series that's even weirder than Formula E: Roborace. The autonomous racing championship will run alongside Formula E races starting next season and will feature self-driving electric cars that were designed by Daniel Simon, the man who penned the light cycles in Tron: Legacy. We already know what to expect from them and they look nothing short of stunning - as promised.

This close connection between the three companies (Charge, Roborace and Kinetik) indicates - the Verge believes - that the self-driving racing cars for the series will be produced at Charge's plant in Oxfordshire. You wouldn't normally tip a company that builds trucks to also make racing cars, but then again nobody really expected Apple to make a car, and yet here they allegedly are.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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