As the world transitions to zero emissions transport in the form of electric vehicles, Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg has hailed the ABB Formula E electric car racing series for its role in driving developments in the rapidly growing industry.
Ahead of the upcoming 10th race of this year’s Formula E season taking to Berlin’s streets this weekend, Rosberg, who is also co-founder of the inaugural Greentech Festival taking place alongside this year’s E-Prix in Berlin, says the new style of racing shows people that electric cars are the future.
“Racing series like ABB Formula E promote e-mobility in such an awesome way and make it look so cool, feel so cool,” Rosberg said in an emailed note.
“And this is important to help enhance the transition [to electric vehicles] and to get people to embrace it and to want to go try an electric car, experience it and maybe consider buying one. Clearly EVs is the future. It’s just a matter of time.”
Ahead of the #GreenTechFestival and as #Berlin gets set for its round of #ABBFormulaE, F1 world champion and @greentech_fest co-founder @Nico_Rosberg says the "awesome" series is "exactly what's needed" to drive the adoption of electric vehicles. #emobility #celebratechange #ABB https://t.co/HEMMu5x4Qd pic.twitter.com/eajc71EOX7
— ABB (@ABBgroupnews) May 22, 2019
The German-born and now retired driver, who was the 2016 Formula One Champion, is embracing electric mobility in more ways than just supporting the Formula E.
Earlier this week, Rosberg spoke with Bloomberg about the Greentech Festival, and his investment in other venture, an e-scooter sharing startup called Tier Mobility that wants to take on US rivals such as Bird and Lime in Europe.
“I’m quite sure [the e-scooter market] is going to be huge,” Rosberg told Bloomberg. “It’s an incredible space its going to be really cool to follow what’s going on there – especially here in the Berlin where the regulations are opening now so its just kicking off.”
Rosberg, who is now becoming known as a new tech entrepreneur, has also invested in Lyft, SpaceX and Lilium, the VTOL air taxi company which only this week made its very first maiden flight.
He considers Elon Musk, whose electric vehicle and energy storage company Tesla has made serious inroads into clean energy transition, an inspiration.
“I’ve always looked up to people like Elon Musk in the startup space who make such an impact with what they’re doing… to accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energies,” Rosberg said.
“That’s just so powerful and that’s really important as a direction for our planet.”
Nico is not the first former Formula One driver to embrace electric mobility – he joins Lewis Hamilton, who last month said he may consider becoming a Formula E driver, as well as Stoffel Vandoorne and Gary Paffett.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.