????每場比賽一開始，車迷都可以通過社交媒體投票評選他們最喜歡的車手，五名得票最高的車手可以使用10秒鐘的60馬力急加速。（所有賽車都有額外的急加速動力儲備，但只有五名車手有機會用到它。）這個設定可能會讓一些年齡較大的車迷覺得不公平。因為賽車比的難道不是駕駛技巧，而是比車手發微博、哄粉絲的功夫？

????不過，至少已經有16名公開支持電動汽車方程式的知名車手（當然，他們并不是全部都參賽了）對這個設定表示了濃厚的興趣。可能會參加電動汽車方程式的前F1車手卡倫?查德胡克說：“在城市道路而不是封閉賽道上比賽，說明他們努力做出差異化，而不是做成另一個印地賽或F1。”

????贊助商們也看到了這場賽事的潛力。豪雅表、米其林、高通（Qualcomm）、雷諾、DHL等知名企業已經確定贊助本次賽事。尤其是高通將成為第一家贊助這項賽事的大型科技公司。“現在人們已經看到了這輛賽車，我們也帶著它參展了，所以其它贊助商也很容易被吸引過來。但是高通是在這一切發生之前就已經做了這件事。”但同時值得注意的是，老牌大型賽事的常客，諸如可口可樂、百事、麥當勞、耐克、阿迪達斯等主流消費品牌都缺席了。

????電動汽車方程式已經把眼光放到第二賽季了，屆時，它將向其它廠商開放汽車設計。這一點甚至令潛在的競爭對手都感到興奮。Andretti Autosport車隊的營銷總監約翰?洛佩斯說：“在技術研發方面，它將成為各方競相拓荒的處女地。像對于電池壽命及安全性，以及如何處理火災，如何處理碰撞這些技術，它都是一個構建這些技術的完美平臺。”以前Andretti車隊主要參加的是印地賽，這次它也將組隊參加電動汽車方程式錦標賽。Andretti車隊并沒有將這項賽事看成一個競爭對手，而是把它看成一個向車迷提供多樣選擇的機會。洛佩斯說：“我們非常看好這項賽事。它有沒有面對什么重大的挑戰？當然。但是我可以告訴你，我們發現贊助商對這次賽事的興趣比我們參加的任何一次賽事都濃厚。從市場和科技的角度講，這都是一個印地賽還沒有涉足的領域。”

????本次系列賽的共同創辦人兼CEO阿甲格曾經是一名歐洲議會的政治家，也在賽車業活躍多年。他自己擁有一支在GP2（比F1低一級的賽事）中參賽的車隊。另外他在倫敦開了一家咨詢公司，還與印度鋼鐵巨頭拉克希米?米塔爾共同擁有一支英國足球隊——女王公園巡游者隊。阿甲格正是大家想象中那種神通廣大、思維超前，能搞得起這樣一個兼顧社交媒體與環保的新型體育賽事的企業家。但是他的成功有一部分也要歸功于消費者購買電動汽車的理念。

????有些電動汽車方程式的支持者對這項賽事對電動汽車行業的影響力抱有很高的期望。Causeway公司的執行合伙人兼凱爾特人隊的CEO韋克?格羅斯派克說：“如果我們讓電動汽車變得更酷，更有吸引力，那么這類車迷就會為電動汽車貢獻更高的銷量。”Causeway公司的投資收益并不直接依賴電動汽車的銷量，但依賴于那些想在賽事里打廣告的贊助商，因而它的漲落也將取決于電動汽車市場的健康。

????或許阿甲格本來應該選擇特斯拉、而不是雷諾作為賽車的制造廠商。現在，寶馬、菲亞特、日產、本田（Honda）等廠商都有自己的全電動車型，他們將來是否會參加電動汽車方程式？如果答案是肯定的，那無疑會提高這次賽事的火爆系數。而這場賽事究竟能不能火，也是這次賽事的最大挑戰：盡管已有埃隆?馬斯克的珠玉在前，要改變人們認為電動汽車不夠“酷”的成見仍然不太容易。

????如果人們對電動汽車的成見依然沒有改觀，那么對于電動汽車賽事來說，無論背后有多少如饑似渴的品牌和聰明的投資人力挺，也仍然難逃轟然翻車、燒毀殆盡的厄運。（財富中文網）

????譯者：樸成奎

????

????Fans will have a way to vote for their favorite drivers through social media right up until the start of each race, and the five drivers who get the most votes will be able to use a 10-second, 60-horsepower speed burst whenever they choose. (All cars will have that extra oomph stored, but only five will get to use it.) That may risk turning off older racing aficionados. Shouldn't a race be determined only by racing skill, not by which driver sent out the best tweets?

????But at least 16 famous drivers, who have publicly endorsed Formula E (not the same, yet, as committing to drive in it), are impressed. "Being in city streets instead of circuits, it underlines that they're trying to be different," says Karun Chandhok, a former F1 racer and potential Formula E driver. "They're not trying to be IndyCar or Formula 1."

????Another group that sees potential already: sponsors. Formula E landed Tag Heuer, Michelin, Qualcomm (QCOM), Renault, and DHL. Qualcomm is especially notable as the first big tech company to back it. "Now that they have seen the car and we've brought it around, it's very easy [for other sponsors] to jump on," says Agag, "but Qualcomm did that before anything was there." Notably absent, though, are the mainstream consumer brands that are perennial sponsors of big sports events: Coca-Cola and Pepsi, McDonald's, Nike, and Adidas.

????Formula E is already looking down the road at its second season, when it will open up the car design to other manufacturers. That's exciting even to would-be competitors. John Lopes, CMO of Andretti Autosport, says, "It's the one place that will truly be the Wild West in terms of technical development. Things like battery life and safety and how you deal with fires and what happens in a crash, this is the perfect place to build out that technology." Andretti chiefly competes in IndyCar, but will have a team in Formula E, which it is viewing not as a competitor, but simply a diversification of offerings for fans. "We're really bullish on the series," says Lopes. "Does it have big challenges? Definitely. But I can tell you that we have seen more sponsor interest in this series than any other series we've been involved in. From a market standpoint and a technology standpoint, this is a space IndyCar is not in."

????Agag, the Formula E co-founder and CEO, is a former European Parliament politician and longtime motorsport executive. He owned a team that raced in the GP2 series (a feeder for Formula 1), ran a consultancy in London and co-owned the British soccer team Queens Park Rangers with steel titan Lakshmi Mittal. Agag is just the sort of well-connected, savvy sports exec you'd expect to launch an ambitious new sports series that incorporates green technology and social media. But his success will depend in part on consumer opinions about owning electric cars.

????Some of Formula E's supporters have high hopes that the sport will influence the electric auto market. "If we make electric vehicles seem cooler and more attractive, it may pay off with more electric sales to this category of fans," says Causeway managing partner and Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck. Causeway's investment success is not directly dependent on electric car sales, but it will depend on sponsors wanting to advertise with the series, and that will grow and wane along with the health of the electric car market.

????Perhaps Agag should have tapped Tesla (TSLA) as the inaugural manufacturer, not Renault. BMW, Fiat, Nissan, and Honda (HMC) all make an electric model now; might they ever jump in to Formula E? It would certainly help with the cool quotient. And that is the sport's challenge: to shift the narrative that electric cars aren't cool--Elon Musk notwithstanding.

????If attitudes around electric cars can't evolve, then an electric racing series, no matter how many eager brands and smart investors are behind it, might crash and burn.