Founder says tire technology 'key part' of Extreme E series

Hanover, Germany – New racing series Extreme E is set for launch in early 2021, with Continental AG as a founding partner and exclusive tire supplier to the electronic SUV (E-SUV) racing programme.

Founded and led by Alejandro Agag, the five-race series spans four continents and aims to highlight the potential role of EVs in protecting the global environment.

As the exclusive tire supplier for the event, Continental is expected to play a pivotal role in the series, according to Agag. 

Tires will play “a key part” in the competition and Continental’s "great technology" will allow the series “to have great tires for its machines,” said Agag in a Q&A.

“Tires are always very important in any championship, but even more so for a championship like Extreme E, where we are going to be racing on different surfaces from rocks to sand, to grass to ice and snow,” he explained.

The racing event, said the founder, will be “very challenging” for the tires and therefore tires should be able to cope with all the pressure. 

“That is, [we need a tire that is] not going to fail you and is going to allow these machines to show their true performance,” he said, “I think that is what we have with Continental.”

For the series, Continental said it had developed a tire based on its CrossContact tires, "that can work at all event locations and in all conditions." 

According to Conti, the development of tires for the racing event was the 'biggest challenge that motorsport tires have had to face.' 

The tires, it said, have to withstand extreme accelerations, violent braking manoeuvres, high speeds, even on tight corners, drift movements, and even jumps. 

The specially-developed Odyssey 21 vehicle to be driven by all Extreme E teams, is roughly similar to commercial SUVs in length, width and weight. However, its electrical equivalent of 550HP has three times the torque of the Formula E Gen 2 vehicle.

*Article based on edited details and comments from Q&A article on the Continental website