Tesla is going to sponsor Formula SAE electric racing teams with free battery cells and also provide other hardware at discounted prices. The EV maker is known to have hired former student participants from this event, and this time they are investing directly. Formula SAE is an organization putting together students in the Mobility field.
Electric vehicles have been popular over the last decade as the student engineers teams started entering contests. This gave them real experience in the competitive setting of electric vehicles. After which, Tesla has been hiring these students after their participation in the competition. Now the company is getting more involved as they are going to sponsor the event teams.
A staff mechanical design engineer at Tesla, John Furtado wrote on a LinkedIn post saying, “Last summer, several of us from Tesla volunteering at the Formula SAE events were dismayed at the number of electric vehicles competing and started discussing what Tesla might be able to do to help accelerate that transition. Pretty excited to be able to share this sponsorship opportunity, just in time for the holidays. If your team is planning to enter any of next year’s Formula Student events as an EV, act fast since applications are due Wednesday the 29th.”
Providing guidance
Tesla wrote in the application form, “As a part of Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, we will be supporting university student teams aspiring to build electric vehicles as part of Formula SAE and Formula Student competitions around the world.”
There are two options available for the teams to apply to. Either choose to get up to 1,000 Tesla battery cells or a heavy discount from Enepaq. It is as follows,
- Up to 1000 high-performance 18650 cylindrical cells shipped to the team free of charge. Teams may choose between a high-energy and a high-power cell, depending on their application.
- An 80% discount on pre-built modules and other hardware supplied by Enepaq (formerly Energus Power Systems), up to an order limit of €20,000.
Also, Tesla also stated that the teams that have this sponsorship offer will be able to get their designs reviewed by experts. It would mean the world’s leading electric powertrain engineers will be giving guidance to those teams who are selected and wish to get reviewed and get validation. Tesla not only works on developing vehicles but also on new developing new generation talent. When Tesla announced its Texas Gigafactory, it also took part in setting up a course in a local community college. There are various such examples initiated by Tesla.
