The FIA Formula E Championship has accredited eight manufacturers including Renault to produce powertrains for the second season of the all electric single seater series.
The championship confirmed last year that it will open itself up to manufacturer input with regards to powertrain units.
This year the series’ control Spark-Renault SRT_01E cars have utilised a powertrain produced by McLaren Electronic Systems.
Following a successful tender process, the FIA has now selected eight manufacturers to develop bespoke powertrains to teams, with Renault the biggest name to commit to the program.
The French marque will be joined by ABT Sportsline, Andretti, Mahindra, Venturi Automobiles, Virgin Racing Engineering, alongside Motomatica and NEXTEV TCR, who are both new to the series.
The group will only be able to develop an e-motor, inverter, gearbox and cooling systems, with all remaining parts of the Spark-Renault SRT_01E remaining untouched.
For season three the championship will ask for manufacturer input to develop batteries in the next scheduled tweak of the regulations.
This season drivers have been forced to switch to a second car during a race to complete the distance under electric power.
The aim is by season five that a single car will be able to contest the entire race.
“It’s fantastic for Formula E to have this many manufacturers wanting to be a part of the championship after just four races, and shows great confidence in the series,” said Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag.
“One of our objectives from the beginning was to promote technology competition but we cannot do that as organisers of the championship, we need ‘actors’ to join and to develop technologies to fight against each other in the races.
“Through this fight we improve the technology and then with this improved technology we improve electric cars in general.
“We expect more manufacturers to join from season three onwards and we’re already talking with many different manufactures and also OEMs.”
VIDEO: FIA Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag explains the changes
