German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz will end its involvement with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E team at the end of the next racing season in an effort to refocus its attention towards electric vehicle development.
Conceived in 2011 and hosting its first season in 2014-15, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is a single-seater motorsport championship designed exclusively for electric cars.
Mercedes-Benz, which only joined the Championship in its sixth season back in 2018-19 through an unofficial affiliation with HWA, and then with their own official debut in the 2019-20 season as Mercedes-Benz HQ, in which they achieved a maiden victory in the final race of the season at the sixth Berlin E-Prix at the Tempelhof Airport.
Things went better in the 2020-21 season, with the team winning three races, as well as team driver Nyck de Vries take home the first Formula E Drivers’ World Championship while the Mercedes-EQ team secured the Teams’ World Championship.
The decision to end their involvement in the Formula E Championship comes after Mercedes-Benz announced in July a wholesale commitment to electric vehicles, committing to offer an electric car in all its segments, an all-electric alternative for every model by 2025, and ending the production of new ICE models from 2025.
This will mean that, by 2030, Mercedes-Benz will only sell electric vehicles.
As part of this commitment, Mercedes-Benz is deliberately shifting its resources to help scale-up the electrification of its models, which includes the development of three electric-only architectures set to be launched in 2025.
Mercedes-Benz will nevertheless remain involved in Formula 1, describing the competition as “the fastest laboratory for developing and proving sustainable and scalable future performance technologies.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.