Qualcomm Joins “Formula E” (as in Electric) Auto Racing Series

Forumula E, Electric Vehicle, Formula 1, Le Mans

Auto racing enthusiasts often point out that many of the innovations in today’s standard production automobiles—including disc brakes, direct shift gearboxes, and dual overhead cams—were pioneered in race cars built by elite race teams.

So the idea behind the FIA Formula E Championship, a 10-city tour of motorsport races for electrically-powered “formula” cars (Le Mans-type race cars with the same chassis, tires, and power train) could prove to be a strong driver of new innovation as the electric vehicle industry takes to the road. The Paris-based Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) gave a green light to the idea last August when it licensed commercial rights to the new Formula E championship series to a consortium of international investors.

The cars now being built for the Formula E Championship series—which is on track to begin in late 2014—will be capable of accelerating from zero to 62 mph in less than three seconds, according to race sponsors.

Formula E race car (Credit: Qualcomm)
Formula E race car (Credit: Qualcomm)

Now Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]), the San Diego wireless giant, says it has joined with Formula E Holdings, the official promoter formed by the investor consortium, to become an official technology partner of the race series. As a technology partner, Qualcomm says it plans to “demonstrate how current and future generations all over the world can benefit from wireless, sustainable technology on and off the track.”

The FIA Formula E Championship series could serve as a showcase for Qualcomm technology—particularly the HaloIPT wireless charging technology for electric vehicles that Qualcomm acquired in late 2011. Qualcomm has been demonstrating the wireless charging technology in London.

Alas! Qualcomm’s wireless charging technology, which uses resonant magnetic induction to transfer

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.