By sportswriter Michael Butterworth
BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Extreme E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag says he hopes to involve Chinese locations and manufacturers in the pioneering off-road electric motor racing series.
With its inaugural season set for 2021, Extreme E aims to highlight the impact of climate change, help rebuild affected communities and promote the use of E-vehicles.
The series has been likened to an electric version of the famous Dakar Rally, and its first year will see drivers race each other in an elimination-style tournament format across five of the world's most remote and hostile locations.
The series' first stop will be the shores of Lac Rose in Senegal, followed by events in the desert of Saudi Arabia, the Himalayas, Greenland's glaciers and the Amazon rainforest.
Speaking to Xinhua last week, Agag said that Chinese interest in the series is strong, with "high-profile" Chinese investors helping finance the fledgling championship, and plans for future rounds of the series in China.
"We have been talking with our Chinese partners about doing something in China and there are some interesting locations there," Agag said. "One is the Gobi Desert, but there are other locations in China that could be very interesting. We would also like to have a Chinese electric car manufacturer, and of course a Chinese driver."
With environmental issues uppermost in organizers' minds, the series includes a number of unique initiatives aimed at keeping emissions down and ensuring a lasting legacy.
Rather than having vehicles and equipment carried by airplane, a repurposed cargo ship will instead serve as a floating paddock, transporting all the series' facilities and providing living quarters when docked at the various stops.
Plans are also afoot to promote sustainability and help local communities in the regions where the races will be taking place.
And unusually for a motor racing series, Extreme E will not feature any spectators on site, as the remoteness of the various locations would make this a tricky undertaking.
While the impracticality of drivers, team personnel and ancillary staff remaining onboard the ship year-round means many will be obliged to fly from location to location - thus adding to the carbon emissions that the series is pledging to help reduce - Agag is adamant that such measures are necessary in order to help grow the series and raise awareness.
"In order to take action, you need to have some emissions, and what we think is a mistake is to do nothing. You have to do something, you have to take action, and action equals emissions."
"What you have to do is minimize those emissions and then offset them against carbon credits. But we think the positive effect of this kind of activity far outweighs the emissions it would generate."
The Spaniard added that steps were also being taken to minimize the emissions produced by the RMS St Helena, which will transport all the series' equipment. "Using a ship already reduces by two-thirds the comparable emissions that we would produce if we flew everything on planes around the world."
"[We're also] optimizing the route, changing the type of fuel we're using, and installing filters on the exterior of the ship to emit fewer particles in addition to carbon dioxide."
The creation of Extreme E comes off the recent success of Agag's original brainchild. The Formula E all-electric racing championship, which takes place on city streets, is now in its sixth year, features a wealth of car manufacturers competing in it, and was recently granted world championship status by motorsport's global governing body, the FIA.
But though the series has gone from strength to strength since, financial difficulties almost forced Formula E to close its doors in its opening year, though Agag moved to allay fears that Extreme E would run into similar problems.
"The project is fully financed. Extreme E is a lot less cash-consuming than Formula E, because the races have no spectators, so we don't have to build the infrastructure that a Formula E race has."
"It's been a lot easier to find investors for Extreme E than Formula E, and that's probably off the back of the success of Formula E. I'm more than confident that those kinds of [financial] problems won't happen with Extreme E."
