Mahindra Formula E Car Sets New Record At Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Mahindra Racing's M4Electro Formula E race car broke the Goodwood hill climb record in the open wheel electric car category with a time of 48.59 seconds. Mahindra chose Germany's Nick Heidfeld, who completed the same 1.87km stretch in 41.6 seconds behind the wheel of the F1 winning McLaren MP4/13 in 1999. That record remains unbeaten till date. 

Among all electric vehicles, the Lola-Drayson B12 69/EV, with 870PS on tap, holds the record of climbing the hill in 47.34 seconds. The M4Electro's is slower by just 1.25 seconds. Pretty impressive considering that the M4Electro is designed to race at the Formula E with no more than 230PS. During qualifying rounds, it's allowed to stretch its legs up to 272PS.

At the 2017 season of Goodwood, the M4Electro finished fifth among the 42 cars that took part, including the Le Mans-winning Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE.

About his experience driving Mahindra’s electric race car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Heidfeld said, “It was great fun to drive up the hill with the target of setting a new electric single-seater record, which we managed to do – but I think we have to come back to challenge the outright electric car record! It’s positive to see that next season’s drivetrain, which we showed here for the first time, ran problem-free. We haven’t had many tests with it before so, all-in-all, it was a very good, productive and fun weekend."

Dilbagh Gill, team principal, Mahindra Racing Formula E, said, “We really enjoyed our time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Not only have we unveiled the M4Electro to the public, but we have also challenged the sceptic’s view of electric vehicles being neither fast nor exciting. To showcase the latest Mahindra Racing technology to such an incredible audience, both at Goodwood itself and through the online and social media coverage, was special. To then set a new open-wheel eRecord was the perfect conclusion to a wonderful event.” 

For season three, the power is limited to 230PS during the race, but Gill is excited to see how the race turns out with 13.5PS of extra boost for the fourth season. The Mahindra Racing team will run next on 15th and 16th July on New York City's Brooklyn Circuit. The third season will wrap up in Montreal on July 30 at the Hydro-Quebec Montreal ePrix track.

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