How do you get 40 race cars around the world? Ask DHL, apparently.
The Forumula E championship comes to a close this weekend with a special double-header race in London’s Battersea Park, but the 200-tonnes of freight required to put the race on would not have made it to the venue without some careful planning on behalf of the race series’ logistics partner DHL.
Over the past 10 months, DHL’s Global Forwarding Motorsports team has been responsible for delivering the cars – weighing 800kg, with a 320kg battery - to each of the ten cities hosting the eleven races.
“The immediate challenge was how are we going to transport all the equipment to the venues,” said Alejandro Agag, Formula E founder and chief executive, speaking ahead of the race weekend.
“We were looking at ways of transporting the cars and were going to invite companies to tender, but fortunately DHL wanted to become a partner. We liked the approach of how they wanted to do the logistics, because as soon as you get out of bed you start polluting, and this is a green race series so we want to minimise the pollution of the logistics,” he continued.
Aside from the large amount of freight that needed to be transported, Formula E and DHL also had the small problem of transporting the highly regulated lithium ion batteries used in the racing cars.
However, having previously transported the complicated KERS battery and electrical systems used in Formula One, DHL were up to the task.
Phil Couchman, CEO DHL Express UK said: “It’s fantastic to welcome Formula E back to the UK, and particularly to such an iconic setting as Battersea Park in London.
"Over the past 10 months we have worked hard to deliver the first series of the championship in the most sustainable way possible. With over 30 years experience in motorsports, we’re thrilled to be part of the founding team behind Formula E and are confident that it will continue to help drive interest in greener technologies and more efficient transport solutions - something we are passionate about as a business.”