► eSC is coming to the London Printworks this 12 months
► 62mph scooters with two 6kW motors
► 30 riders and 10 groups
We’re at the launch of one other new electric motorsport, and on paper it’s like each new motorsport collection you’ve heard about in the final 18 months. It’s electric, it’s targeted on city mobility, and it’s designed to attraction to a youthful viewers. However, it’s not like something you’ve seen earlier than – primarily due to the e-scooters it’ll be utilizing…
Electric scooters?
Yes. The eSkootr championship or eSC will use all-wheel drive scooters with two 6kW motors, a 1.33kWh battery and a high velocity of over 62mph. At 35kg they’re gentle and have sufficient grip to be leant at 45 levels. We’re additionally informed that it’s attainable to torque vector too.
Take away the aerodynamic fairings and a few of the energy, they usually’re not dissimilar to the e-scooters at present terrorizing pavements and roads throughout the UK’s main cities.
Each race will see 30 riders compete, throughout ten groups with three drivers – they usually’ll be conducting a whistle cease tour of all the capital cities you’d anticipate. The season kicks off with the London spherical, which’ll happen in the Printworks venue.
Wait, isn’t there sufficient electric, city motorsports round?
Yes, however like the scooters riders will likely be racing on, sSC has been engineered from the floor as much as be gentle, versatile, environment friendly – and simply capable of slot in the present panorama. In 2022, motorsport is about the enterprise mannequin simply as a lot as the spectacle, and the founders – which embrace Lucas Di Grassi and Alex Wurz are eager to level out how environment friendly and sustainable eSC could possibly be.
In the identical Formula e was pitched as a catalyst or pinnacle for EVs, eSC will do the for these scooters. But not like Formula E and extra so F1, it goals to do it in a lower-cost method, too.
‘One way of making the business model of motorsport one to better is to make the vehicle smaller, cheaper and more accessible.’ explains former Le Mans, F1 driver, Formula E racer and eSC co-founder Lucas Di Grassi. ‘And when you do that it also makes it more sustainable. So, the business idea made a lot of sense.’
Carbon-zero from inception, eSC goals to be carbon detrimental in the future and will likely be a supply of R&D for future industrial merchandise. eSC gained’t have the identical points with infrastructure as different EV collection reminiscent of Formula E or Extreme E, both:
‘We use local infrastructure,’ Di Grassi says. ‘To charge a scooter and don’t need special charges. You don’t need to reinvent infrastructure in the city to make sure that electric mobility develops. So, it’s very convenient, very cheap.’
‘Formula E was created in 2012 to address [electric] technology in the entertainment area of the electric car market,’ explains Di Grassi. ‘I saw millions of people riding scooters every day and there was no aspiration sport that you could lead into,’ he provides.
Aren’t e-scooters a bit annoying?
The founders of eSC are additionally conscious of the detrimental connotations electric scooters have proper now; however that’s all a part of the plan; the new collection will group up with cities and councils to teach in addition to entertain.
‘Micro-mobility is something which is unfolding in all of our cities around the world,’ begins former F1 driver Alex Wurz, who can be a founding father of the new collection. ‘It’s at times a bit problematic because it’s not properly legislated. It has at times a negative image. But this is exactly like the car industry was at the very beginning.’
Will eSC work?
We’ll discover out in time, however on the floor it’s a really shrewd entry into the motorsport enviornment. Flexible sufficient to squeeze into the weekends of different occasions (Wurz talked about races at half-time in soccer matches) it’s additionally low cost and sustainable sufficient to be taken to more and more attention-grabbing venues. And with 30 in style riders in tow, and an NFL-drafting system to for groups to get them – it has at the very least 30 attainable possibilities to make an impression on social media
We’ll know extra after Round 1 at the Printworks London.