????每場(chǎng)比賽一開(kāi)始，車(chē)迷都可以通過(guò)社交媒體投票評(píng)選他們最喜歡的車(chē)手，五名得票最高的車(chē)手可以使用10秒鐘的60馬力急加速。（所有賽車(chē)都有額外的急加速動(dòng)力儲(chǔ)備，但只有五名車(chē)手有機(jī)會(huì)用到它。）這個(gè)設(shè)定可能會(huì)讓一些年齡較大的車(chē)迷覺(jué)得不公平。因?yàn)橘愜?chē)比的難道不是駕駛技巧，而是比車(chē)手發(fā)微博、哄粉絲的功夫？

????不過(guò)，至少已經(jīng)有16名公開(kāi)支持電動(dòng)汽車(chē)方程式的知名車(chē)手（當(dāng)然，他們并不是全部都參賽了）對(duì)這個(gè)設(shè)定表示了濃厚的興趣?？赡軙?huì)參加電動(dòng)汽車(chē)方程式的前F1車(chē)手卡倫?查德胡克說(shuō)：“在城市道路而不是封閉賽道上比賽，說(shuō)明他們努力做出差異化，而不是做成另一個(gè)印地賽或F1?！?/p>

????贊助商們也看到了這場(chǎng)賽事的潛力。豪雅表、米其林、高通（Qualcomm）、雷諾、DHL等知名企業(yè)已經(jīng)確定贊助本次賽事。尤其是高通將成為第一家贊助這項(xiàng)賽事的大型科技公司?！艾F(xiàn)在人們已經(jīng)看到了這輛賽車(chē)，我們也帶著它參展了，所以其它贊助商也很容易被吸引過(guò)來(lái)。但是高通是在這一切發(fā)生之前就已經(jīng)做了這件事?！钡瑫r(shí)值得注意的是，老牌大型賽事的?？?，諸如可口可樂(lè)、百事、麥當(dāng)勞、耐克、阿迪達(dá)斯等主流消費(fèi)品牌都缺席了。

????電動(dòng)汽車(chē)方程式已經(jīng)把眼光放到第二賽季了，屆時(shí)，它將向其它廠商開(kāi)放汽車(chē)設(shè)計(jì)。這一點(diǎn)甚至令潛在的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手都感到興奮。Andretti Autosport車(chē)隊(duì)的營(yíng)銷(xiāo)總監(jiān)約翰?洛佩斯說(shuō)：“在技術(shù)研發(fā)方面，它將成為各方競(jìng)相拓荒的處女地。像對(duì)于電池壽命及安全性，以及如何處理火災(zāi)，如何處理碰撞這些技術(shù)，它都是一個(gè)構(gòu)建這些技術(shù)的完美平臺(tái)?！币郧癆ndretti車(chē)隊(duì)主要參加的是印地賽，這次它也將組隊(duì)參加電動(dòng)汽車(chē)方程式錦標(biāo)賽。Andretti車(chē)隊(duì)并沒(méi)有將這項(xiàng)賽事看成一個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，而是把它看成一個(gè)向車(chē)迷提供多樣選擇的機(jī)會(huì)。洛佩斯說(shuō)：“我們非?？春眠@項(xiàng)賽事。它有沒(méi)有面對(duì)什么重大的挑戰(zhàn)？當(dāng)然。但是我可以告訴你，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)贊助商對(duì)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(chǎng)和科技的角度講，這都是一個(gè)印地賽還沒(méi)有涉足的領(lǐng)域?！?/p>

????本次系列賽的共同創(chuàng)辦人兼CEO阿甲格曾經(jīng)是一名歐洲議會(huì)的政治家，也在賽車(chē)業(yè)活躍多年。他自己擁有一支在GP2（比F1低一級(jí)的賽事）中參賽的車(chē)隊(duì)。另外他在倫敦開(kāi)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(guó)足球隊(duì)——女王公園巡游者隊(duì)。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(gè)兼顧社交媒體與環(huán)保的新型體育賽事的企業(yè)家。但是他的成功有一部分也要?dú)w功于消費(fèi)者購(gòu)買(mǎi)電動(dòng)汽車(chē)的理念。

????有些電動(dòng)汽車(chē)方程式的支持者對(duì)這項(xiàng)賽事對(duì)電動(dòng)汽車(chē)行業(yè)的影響力抱有很高的期望。Causeway公司的執(zhí)行合伙人兼凱爾特人隊(duì)的CEO韋克?格羅斯派克說(shuō)：“如果我們讓電動(dòng)汽車(chē)變得更酷，更有吸引力，那么這類車(chē)迷就會(huì)為電動(dòng)汽車(chē)貢獻(xiàn)更高的銷(xiāo)量?！盋auseway公司的投資收益并不直接依賴電動(dòng)汽車(chē)的銷(xiāo)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(dòng)汽車(chē)市場(chǎng)的健康。

????或許阿甲格本來(lái)應(yīng)該選擇特斯拉、而不是雷諾作為賽車(chē)的制造廠商?，F(xiàn)在，寶馬、菲亞特、日產(chǎn)、本田（Honda）等廠商都有自己的全電動(dòng)車(chē)型，他們將來(lái)是否會(huì)參加電動(dòng)汽車(chē)方程式？如果答案是肯定的，那無(wú)疑會(huì)提高這次賽事的火爆系數(shù)。而這場(chǎng)賽事究竟能不能火，也是這次賽事的最大挑戰(zhàn)：盡管已有埃隆?馬斯克的珠玉在前，要改變?nèi)藗冋J(rèn)為電動(dòng)汽車(chē)不夠“酷”的成見(jiàn)仍然不太容易。

????如果人們對(duì)電動(dòng)汽車(chē)的成見(jiàn)依然沒(méi)有改觀，那么對(duì)于電動(dòng)汽車(chē)賽事來(lái)說(shuō)，無(wú)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(chē)、燒毀殆盡的厄運(yùn)。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????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.