It was good to be back at Coventry Transport Museum for the third time with the ever-popular IET Electrification in Motorsport event back in March. Surrounded by one of the world’s largest collections of historical British vehicles, it’s hard to imagine a better venue to showcase the future of racing.There was a good number of delegates at the event and it was heartening to see so many young professionals from both industry and academia.  The seminar saw a range of speakers from leaders in the world of electric racing, as well as technical specialists and academics covering all aspects of advanced electric powertrain systems.   


The result was a day of presentations which covered Formula 1 and Formula E through to the upcoming Extreme E championship as well as the design of motors, electronics, batteries and transmissions for these applications.    


Throughout the day it was clear that this area of motorsport is both highly active and pushing the boundaries of the technologies involved, the format of motor racing and feeding relevant learning back into designs of the cars we buy in the future.    In addition, there was a great display of 2 and 4 wheeled electric racers and even some needing no drivers! Overall it was a fascinating day of learning and networking with industry experts that all who attended thoroughly enjoyed


We had some amazing exhibits of our own to complement the museum’s collection, presenting a theme of the “three ages of electric motorsport engineers”. As organisers, we were delighted to have the chance to give a platform to aspiring electric motorsport engineers alongside established industry players. Our youngest exhibitors brought along their Greenpower endurance car, built while they were still at school at WMG Academy, along with an example of its custom energy-saving hub design. 


Students from Coventry University were out in force with their prize-winning Formula Student AI autonomous racer and a poster display. Nottingham University brought their record-breaking electric superbike and Warwick University rounded out the academic showcase with a project display. From the professional racing world came a Mahindra Formula E show car, which provided a magnificent centrepiece to the show hall.


Thanks to all the speakers, exhibitors, sponsors (Rockfort Engineering Limited, Mahindra Racing) , staff, delegates and volunteers who made this day a big success. We hope to be back soon.



Blog created by Angus Lyon and Stephen Powley, IET ARTS Executive team members.