Blog of RENAULT NISSAN Alliance

The Renault-Nissan Alliance will use motor racing to improve the next generation of electric vehicles.

Jerry Hardcastle, Nissan’s Chief Marketability Engineer and Technical Director for Global Motorsport, told the Alliance-backed B4E Climate Summit being held in London: “The electric car has come to the road before it made it to the race track where, traditionally, technical innovations were developed.

“But the scale of the vehicle emissions challenge facing our industry means that we need to use the heat of competition to accelerate development of the EV breed.”

He added: “EVs are fun to drive – people are surprised by this, but they shouldn’t be. The instant torque from the engine and the low centre of gravity helped by mounting the batteries low in the chassis means they are great to drive.

“But I admit, there are questions about their range. We want to improve the performance of the motors and batteries and we are turning to motor sport to do this.

“The next generation of Grand Prix engines currently being developed by Renault for leading teams including Infiniti Red Bull and Team Lotus, will use advanced energy harvesting systems and as a result will be far more efficient than the current engines.

“Renault is also developing a new electric single seat racing car for the FIA Formula E series, which will bring zero emission motor racing into the cities. Using this know-how will mean that improvements made on the race track will find their way into our road cars.

Proving that innovation and excitement drive both Renault and Nissan, Hardcastle added: “The idea is to show that enjoying motor racing and being concerned about the environment are not mutually exclusive. You can have both… and you should have both.”