Formula E, going green, and that £4bn Tata Group battery factory

The Formula E season may be over but the technology never sleeps. And when technology can be transferred from a race track and into our homes – whether that be electric generation software or broadcasting structures – it can be revolutionary.

When tech folk talk of what’s called “Race to Road” they refer to motorsporting systems that are used in electric race vehicles today that we may see on the road in a decade’s time – the Versace fashion show of the automotive world, if you will.

It’s a form of trickle down whereby brands such as TCS, who are parented by Tata Group, are looking to advance technology in sport to use among the masses further down the line.

TCS on the prowl

TCS works with Jaguar in Formula E, and parent company Tata work around Formula 1.

Jaguar TCS have had an interesting year. Team principal James Barclay told City A.M. last month: “Right from the start [of the season] we were competitive and we just built on that to the point where we have been really strong overall.”

But the reality is that Jaguar customer team Envision won the team championship in Formula E this season and while they’re not the only team to be outperformed by a customer outfit, it’s not ideal. You wouldn’t see Aston Martin beat Mercedes to a team title in Formula 1, for example.

But the tech is there and it will undoubtedly be used on the road in the coming years. Tata, who own Jaguar and TCS, are to build a £4bn battery factory in the United Kingdom as part of their push to electrify.

And though TCS would not comment on the reported £500m plus government grant to set the project in motion, they did tell City A.M. about the race to road initiative involving their Formula E team.

Road to race

“It literally became a no-brainer given the sustainable nature of this event [Formula E], it is directly impacting the real world vehicles,” Varun Kapur, vice president and industry segment head at TCS said.

“We have been working with Jaguar Land Rover for a good 10 to 12 years and we’ve been working across traditional [and] digital solutions –  we’ve been helping them on the product design, electrification, subsystem testing and electrical vehicles.

“We’ve been very deeply ingrained in that ecosystem to work together.”

TCS can argue that their systems helped win championships, though their major partner Jaguar are yet to experience team titles and are losing their long-standing driver Sam Bird.

But the project is more than electric racing across 17 races in a season, it is a brand, under Tata Group, that is looking to find a footing in a congested market.

Tata making moves

Tata Communications, part of the family, which sits on the NSE (at time of writing, -1.47 per cent), was once government owned and now finds itself among a number of sporting models.

And, to their credit, they’re looking to alter the way communications in the broadcasting world are done, taking control of every aspect of the process.

A new, spoiled, generation of consumers has “raised the bar” in terms of media consumption, demanding an entirely new level of engagement altogether.

“Gone are the days where you will hear of a goal first through social media and then watch it on live TV,” Dhaval Ponda, Tata Commincations’ global head of media and entertainment, told City A.M.

Tata Comm assumes an “end-to-end” responsibility for F1 broadcasting, leaving no room for blame or error.

“When it is live, you have to really respond to any issue in milliseconds. And it has to be milliseconds because anything more than that is visible to the naked eye,” Ponda explained. 

Tata blackout

If they get something wrong – which happened recently during one of Europe’s most famous races causing a six second blackout – it’s on Tata’s head. 

“We are living through a once-in-a-generation shift for the industry and things will continue to change quite quickly,” Ponda said. 

Tata Group is making their mark on sport, whether that’s the communications branch or TCS.

But sometimes winning is all that matters, and Tata Group’s involvement with motorsport through TCS has seen their Jaguar outfit beaten by a customer.

That’ll undoubtedly drive them going forward, that’s for certain.