Hyderabad: The Telangana government and Formula E Association along with the promoter of the event, Greenko signed a letter of intent to make Hyderabad a candidate host city for hosting the Formula E race on yearly basis. The tripartite letter of intent was signed in Hyderabad in the presence of Telangana’s Industry Minister K. T. Rama Rao, FIA Formula E Chief Championship Officer Alberto Longo, Greenko Group Chief Executive Officer Anil Chalamasetty, Mahindra Racing CEO and Team Principal Dilbagh Gill and other officials.
Alberto was impressed with the speed with which the Telangana government moved to sign the letter of intent in less than a month since the idea was mooted. He said he had never seen a government taking decisions at such a speed. He said Hyderabad would soon become the official host city with the first race happening between December 2022 and March 2023.
Rama Rao said hosting Formula E is the right step to position Hyderabad as electric vehicles hub. “It’s more than a race. It’s the perfect combination of future technology, sustainability and most importantly spirit of innovation,” he said. The minister claimed that Telangana has done extremely well in 7.5 years in meeting energy challenges. The state’s energy output grew four-fold in 7 years and 20 per cent of this came from green energy.
Telangana’s Director for Electric Vehicles and Energy Storage Systems Sujai Karampuri hoped that an agreement to make Hyderabad an official host city will be signed in the next 90 days or much earlier. He pointed out that 60 cities around the world were vying to host Formula E and of the 24 cities are really strong candidates. He said the organisers were impressed with the 2.3 km long race track overlooking Hussain Sagar Lake in the heart of the city. Gill, who heads the only Indian team participating in the Formula E race, said they will soon have an opportunity to race in front of the home crowd. According to him, Formula E is significant as technology transfer from race car to roll car happens in 18 months.