india got its firstever formulae world championship on february 11 and the crowds gathered in hyderabad to witness the sustainable equivalent of the formula 1 races formulae was brought into the country in partnership with an emobility solutions provider abb we recently got a chance to interact with hitender vigamal country lead abb india who shared intricate details about the races the fastcharging technology behind gen 3 cars and how testing information gathered at the championship can help ev manufacturers fasttrack development vigamal told toi auto from season 9 abb has taken on its new role within the series as official charging partner working with engineers from the motorsport governing body the fia and formula e abb developed a compact reliable and safe solution for charging the new gen3 cars before race day and between sessions the abb formula e race charger has been designed in a robust custom and ergonomic way that allows for easy global transportation and installationearlier 20182022 gen 2 formula e cars featured batteries that had a peak output of 200 kw this required drivers to swap cars midway into the race this was later upgraded and allowed the cars to last a full race however in the latest gen 3 cars the peak power output has been increased to 350 kw and can go up to 600 kw these new cars also feature regenerative braking which further increases energy consumption leading to over 40 percent of the vehicles energy consumption coming from regeneration however the cars still need to be charged and that is where the abb fastchargers came in the abb formula e fastchargers deliver a maximum power of 160 kw and can charge two cars simultaneously at 80 kw capacity each this particularly comes in handy for race teams who get double charging capacity during championshipssource abb globalthe abb formula e race charger features abbs newest charging technology and draws on the companys leading position in the sector its design adapts technology already proven in road car charging applications to suit a demanding motorsport environment it offers the greatest reliability and consistency of performance wherever in the world the chargers are used from various power sources managed by the abb ability optimax energy management software vigamal said the abb ability optimax software is deployed at race circuits to monitor and analyze total racespecific energy output more efficiently up to 14 metering boxes are installed at host venues collecting data on how much electrical power kilowatts is being used by teams and other race partners at any given moment and how much electricity kilowatts hours is consumed this information is then relayed back to race control via the microsoft azure cloud total consumption across entire eprix sites is also monitored encompassing operations including the tv broadcast suite evillage fan zone media centre catering facilities the paddock and of course the teams pit garages vigamal added driving ev adoption is currently obstructed by our countrys charging infrastructure however the lack is also an opportunity to