zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Formula E Is Selling Its First-Generation Electric Race Cars
Formula E Is Selling Its First-Generation Electric Race Cars-May 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:13

Surely even you tire of racing vintage cars occasionally, yearning for something more futuristic, more efficient—potentially, even, something so you can still make yachting plans for next weekend over the sounds of the actual car. You’re in luck, because is selling its old race cars.

Formula E and its all-electric racers have been around for four seasons now, meaning its first-generation cars are aging and on the way out. But instead of sitting in storage in some remote location for the rest of their lives, reports that these cars are going to be up for grabs on the secondary market.

Rather than advertising it, Bloomberg reports, Formula E is just letting word get around. Sounds like it fits right in with the yacht stuff.

Formula E will sell 40 cars for between $200,000 and $289,000, according to Bloomberg. That’s about half of what the series paid for each before leasing to teams, and Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag told Bloomberg that all 40 cars have now been raced and returned to the series for sale—including potential sales to some of the race teams that want to keep their cars, he said.

But if you want one, too, there are some things you should probably know about the cars first. From the story:

The first generation of electric racing cars, which closed out at the ABB FIA Formula E Championship in Brooklyn, N.Y., last month, isn’t perfect. Sometimes, the whirr of the motor sounded like dental-cleaning tools. Limits on the battery capability meant that a driver had to make a pit stop midway to swap cars in order to complete the 40-lap race. [...]

“The current cars are still fit for purpose. They’ve provided us with four seasons of exciting, intense, and unpredictable racing,” says Agag. “I know there’s a lot of interest from collectors and they could even be used for racing purposes.”

In the four years since the cars were introduced, battery technology has advanced to the point that the next generation of electric race cars will be able to complete a 45-minute timed race on a single charge. The new cars—and this new format, which is being changed from 40 laps—will debut at next season’s first race, to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital in December.

This could be great, depending on who buys the cars. It would be one of those “Ah, finally” moments to test limits of Formula E cars outside of the tracks predetermined for them to race on, since details like speed capabilities on the cars since they came out, and Formula E’s small, tight circuits made those details less relevant.

But all of that is a big “if,” unless Formula E decides to give a Craigslist special and drop that $200,000 price down to $2,000 for folks like your neighborhood Jalopnik staff to afford.

That won’t happen, though, because plenty of people will surely pay a premium for the freedom to race vehicles quiet enough to let them plan their next boating trip at the same time. Multi-tasking!

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Half Of The Formula One Grid Technically Ran Too Slow In Qualifying
Half Of The Formula One Grid Technically Ran Too Slow In Qualifying
Conditions were so nasty at the Hungaroring yesterday that 11 drivers of the 22-car Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix field set qualifying times slower than 107% the time of Rosberg’s leading 1:33.302 lap, reports . Under F1's 107% rule, anyone who qualifies that slowly gets pulled from the race. Needless...
May 22, 2026
Drivers Replace Fist Fighting With Car Fighting At Certifiably Insane NASCAR Track
Drivers Replace Fist Fighting With Car Fighting At Certifiably Insane NASCAR Track
The phrase “short tracks, short tempers” is a classic in racing, and there isn’t a more perfect example of than a recent incident from —a wreck for the lead, retaliation under caution, and a grand finale of two cars smacking each other in the infield. This, everyone, is as authentic...
May 22, 2026
The Super-Dominant Ford GT Is A Lot Faster When It's Not On Fire
The Super-Dominant Ford GT Is A Lot Faster When It's Not On Fire
The Ford GT apparently shares more with the Ferrari marque it at Le Mans than we thought. Just like the intense, passionate Italian we know and love, the Ford GT, too, is pretty flammable. Burn Baby Burn, Ford-o Inferno During today’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring, a valve stuck open on...
May 22, 2026
Lewis Hamilton Tells Esteban Gutiérrez That He's Number One With A Finger
Lewis Hamilton Tells Esteban Gutiérrez That He's Number One With A Finger
There are a few ways that Formula One can inform a driver that there’s faster traffic behind him. One is with the traditional blue flag thrown by trackside marshals. Another, more desperate but more entertaining method, is for the overtaking driver to flip the bird as he blows by the...
May 22, 2026
We're Snapchatting From IMSA At Lime Rock Park, So Come Watch With Us
We're Snapchatting From IMSA At Lime Rock Park, So Come Watch With Us
We’re out at Lime Rock Park for the IMSA races this weekend and we recently joined a cool mobile-phone app, which means that we’re venturing into the world of Snapchat and bringing the fun straight to our “jalopnikdotcom” account. If you haven’t added us on Snapchat already—or you’re avoiding the...
May 22, 2026
Save The Porsches!
Save The Porsches!
Marc Lieb, why must we have this pointless Porsche-on-Porsche violence? Why? Why? Stewards at today’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring placed the blame on Lieb in the LMP1-class No. 2 Porsche 919 for hitting the much slower LM GTE Am-class No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR of Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing that was...
May 22, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved