It was a bittersweet victory for the Coventry-based luxury carmaker. Its two New Zealander drivers, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans, scuppered their chances to lift the coveted driver\u2019s championship, leading to scenes of devastation in the team\u2019s VIP area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team recovered their emotions to celebrate the win. And for the bigwigs at Jaguar HQ, the victory was a reminder of the soon-to-be all-electric brand\u2019s hopes for the future.<\/p>\n
The EVs of tomorrow<\/h2>\n
The appeal to a manufacturer of owning a racing team is apparent. It can reinvigorate an old brand, particularly one marketing itself on speed and innovation. Race day is an excellent opportunity to wine and dine clients, too.<\/p>\n
They can also show off their mass-market cars, the big money spinner behind the glamor of a racing team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car <\/em>conference <\/em>last year, Aston Martin boss Lawrence Stroll<\/a> boasted of how his company had sold between 300 and 400 of its Vantage F1 edition cars because a replica had featured as F1\u2019s safety car.<\/p>\n That would have been equivalent to around $80 million in revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, though, racing is a test bed for cars that will one day scorch up Europe\u2019s motorways.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which has pledged to build only electric cars from next year, has naturally chosen Formula E as its test bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n When JLR recruited James Barclay to become its electric racing team\u2019s first principal in 2015, he says he and his team literally started with a blank piece of paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jaguar Racing via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe wanted to use it as a real-world testbed for EV technology,\u201d Barclay told Fortune<\/em> at a roundtable on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd doing so is likely to be slightly ahead of the curve of on-road technologies on production vehicles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After eight years of working at the paddock, the carmaker has begun to reap the rewards of those innovations in a fast-moving sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year at the Monaco E-Prix, the team trialed a \u201cre-refined\u201d transmission fluid<\/a> developed by Castrol.<\/p>\n Silicon carbide semiconductor technology<\/a>, first developed in Jaguar\u2019s 2017 Formula E car, was rolled out to its commercial models in 2021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt pushes you to do things that normal development wouldn\u2019t because you have to innovate to beat the competition,\u201d Barclay told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Barclay puts the lag time between discoveries on the Formula E track making it into a commercial car at about four years, as was the case with its carbide technology.<\/p>\n Part of that comes from its partnership with team sponsors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), whose parent company also owns JLR.<\/p>\n Like JLR, TCS had a presence in F1 through a tie-up with Ferrari but left it behind to focus on endurance running through its sponsorship of marathons like London and New York.<\/p>\n It has since partnered with Jaguar in Formula E.\u00a0<\/p>\n The manufacturer has used a \u201cdigital twin<\/a>\u201d developed by TCS, which helps the JLR run simulations with digital copies of the group\u2019s cars and drivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe technology in the care is super important,\u201d says Abhinav Kumar, TCS\u2019s global chief marketing officer.<\/p>\n All of Jaguar\u2019s and TCS\u2019s innovations, Barclay says, will lead to a quicker-charging, more efficient, and faster cars.<\/p>\n Last Sunday was the last time the Jaguar TCS team would wheel its Jaguar I Type 6 Formula E car into the garage, making way for the carmaker\u2019s next, more advanced iteration.\u00a0<\/p>\n But before long, the power train, re-refined oil, and innovative software used on the race track will have its fingerprints across the globe in Jaguars on the roads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-2162298149-e1721745768804.jpg?w=1440&q=75\"\/)
Future innovations<\/h2>\n