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Electric motorsports: Vancouver to host Formula E race in 2022

Audi Sport driver Lucas di Grassi celebrates a Formula E victory in Mexico City in 2019 by doing a big, smoky burnout. Marco Ugarte / The Associated Press

The sights and sounds of world-class racing will be seen and heard along the streets of Vancouver next July.

Well, more sights and quite less sound, actually.

Unlike the former Indy cars that thundered and roared around B.C. Place from 1990 to 2004, the race cars that will zip through Vancouver’s streets in 2022 will be electric.

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On Thursday, the world’s governing body for motorsports, FIA, made several announcements, including next year’s schedule for the Formula E World Championship calendar, with a race in Vancouver on July 2.

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The Formula E series schedule features stops across the world, including Mexico City, Cape Town, Rome, Monte Carlo, New York, London and Seoul.

The season starts Jan. 28-29, 2022, in Saudia Arabia with two rounds and ends in South Korea on Aug. 13-14 with two rounds of racing as well.

Overall, there will be 16 rounds of racing, with Vancouver being the 10th round of racing.

 

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Formula E cars are similar to Formula 1 cars in appearance but are obviously powered with electric motors instead of insanely expensive and high-tuned engines that madly consume fuel.

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Further, unless you’re a hardcore motorsports enthusiast, both Formula E teams and their drivers will be unknown to B.C. residents, so expect a small learning curve to get up to speed.

Still, it’s highly competitive racing and the drivers, who come from around the world, are equally as skilled.

But drivers aside, what makes Formula E are the cars.

According to Formula E, the cars can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.8 seconds and feature a top speed of 280 km/h.

For more about Formula E, which has its races televised, visit their website.

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