Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Megan Hall: If you’ve ever been to a car race, you know they are LOUD….
Megan Hall: But this summer, I went to a new kind of car race. And it sounded like…
Ryan Conaty: It’s quite peaceful. It’s kind of… it’s funny.
Megan Hall: That’s my husband Ryan. He goes to Daytona every year, he’s photographed a Formula 1 race….we even flew to France for the 24 hours of La-Mans…But he’s never been to something like this….
Ryan Conaty: I feel like we’re living in the future. Right now.
Megan Hall: We’re standing near a fence at the Portland International Raceway, watching cars zoom by on their qualifying laps. But, we can barely hear them. That’s because they’re electric.
Allen Brown: Oh, I miss the motor noise.
Megan Hall: That’s Allen Brown. He drove about 2 hours from Corvallis, Oregon to get to the race today.
Allen Brown: I’m a Formula One fan. And this is the first time Formula E’s been in this area of the country. So I figured hey, why not?
Megan Hall: This Formula E race borrows a lot from Allen’s favorite motorsport. Like Formula 1, these cars travel all over the world and race on different tracks and street circuits, competing for a championship at the end of the season.
Megan Hall: But, because the cars are electric, the drivers have an extra challenge-
Julia Palle: When they start racing, they have they’re missing 40% of the energy that they would need to finish the race.
Megan Hall: That’s Julia Palle, the sustainability director for Formula E. She says starting the race this way means the drivers can’t JUST focus on driving fast.
Julia Palle: Within Formula E it’s all about the energy management and how they can get their battery to last longer.
Megan Hall: The drivers mostly do this with their brakes, which are designed to recharge their batteries.
The extra challenge makes the race more interesting, but there’s also a practical purpose. Formula E is basically a laboratory for improving the electric cars we drive on the road.
Julia Palle: We are always trying to be ahead of the game of what will be the next need from a passenger vehicle perspective.
Megan Hall: Julia says that since the races started 9 years ago, they’ve managed to almost double the capacity of their car batteries. Now, they’re working on faster charging stations.
Julia Palle: because people don’t want to be spending hours even not any more 20 minutes, you know, like to recharge their cars.
Megan Hall: How close are you to something like that, that maybe consumers could use?
Julia Palle: I would say very close. But for the rest, I cannot comment any further.
Megan Hall: But Julia says these Formula E races aren’t just about improving technology, they’re about getting people excited about a future without fossil fuels.
Megan Hall: This approach is attracting a new audience to motorsports- like 18-year-old Rebecca Richey, who came here with her friends from Albany, Oregon.
Rebecca Richey: Yeah, I think eventually, they’re gonna outlaw gas. And then we’ll just all have electric cars, or we’ll all have, like public transportation…
Friends: That would be so much better. (yeah…)
Megan Hall: But what about the die-hard race car fans? The ones like Allen Brown from Corvallis, or my husband Ryan, who miss the roar and smell of the track?
Julia Palle: Well, I mean, first of all, some people will never be you know, convinced, but I think what is super interesting when you get to actually come and experience the race is that the cars do have a sound. It’s not as let’s say, overtaking which makes that you actually can have a conversation, you can bring young children with you because it’s bearable, literally in terms of decibels.
Megan Hall: When the actual race gets started, the loudspeakers and helicopters circling the track make up for the quiet electric motors. As we walk back to our car, I check in with Ryan. What did he think?
Ryan Conaty: More women and children than I’m accustomed to and a lot less tobacco use. But I’d say it’s a good event. I like it.
Megan Hall: That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
