E1 Boats Across Coasts and Cities
WRITTEN BY Frew Murdoch PROJECT DIRECTED BY Malvern Kandemwa Rodi Co-Founder,Basso, E1 2 Issue 106 · Business Enquirer Magazine
The UIM E1 World Championship advances electrification at sea level Sports entertainment has proven to be the ideal vehicle to carry a positive message of change to the masses. Sports like Formula E and Extreme E have laid the track for the partnership between motorsports and electri fication; both exciting and inspiring fans across the globe. Following suit, but with a different
E1 CEO Rodi Basso co-founded and launched the championship alongside close friend, Formula E and Extreme E pioneer Alejandro Agag in 2020.
Across Coasts and Cities
E1 Boats
Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 106 3
Rodi is an entrepreneurial electrical engineer with a passion for the sea and an extensive his tory in Formula One working with heavyweights Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, and McLaren. Rodi’s main aim for the series is to build an innovative spectacle that promotes water race events while contributing to sustainability and impact reduc
sustainability angle, comes the UIM E1 World Championship, which holds an exclusive license as the only world electric powerboat series and is sanctioned by the Union Internationale Mo tonautique to promote electric marine mobility.
4 Issue 106 · Business Enquirer Magazine
More than a race platform E1’s unique sporting point and capacity to, as Rodi puts it, “be much more than a race plat form”, results from three primary focal points of investment. The first refers to city ambassador ship. The E1 World Championship serves as an advocate for city brands, ensuring their media products promote the cities involved in the cham pionship throughout the season. The series seeks three common characteristics when scouting for race locations. Cities should have an “iconic sta tus”, like Monaco and Venice (which are already being explored as potential race venues). They also look for locations that showcase sensitivity to sus tainability and an affinity for innovation. “The other important pillar is technology in the form of cross-fertilization. In my proposal to We are building a race platform, but we know that we are much more than that... It is a new driving style and technique. “ “
tion. He believes the new style of vehicle design coupled with the sea environment will provide a unique sporting point for the series.
“We are building a race platform, but we know that we are much more than that. We focus our attention on building an exciting race format; a two-day event where the first one [day] is more dedicated to free practices and testing. The sec ond one is the city event where we see the exciting sporting side based on qualifying and the race. The difference will be made by the capabilities of the pilots to sail the new vessels, which are half boat and half aircraft or aerospace vehicle. It is a new driving style and technique. There will be some settings that the pilot will have to tune depending on the driving style and the water conditions. And, on top of this, the battery management is some thing completely new to the marine industry,” ex plained Rodi.
E1 Boats
ation Feature Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 106 5
Innovatio We are incredibly focused and authentically keen on driving longerlasting, large scale projects about sustainability. “ “ 6 Issue 106 · Business Enquirer Magazine
E1’s RB.01 vessel performing a demonstration Alejandro, I presented it as the meeting point of powerboating, motorsport, and high-end auto motive. This latter part is where we are taking all our lessons learned in terms of electronics, controls, and electric propulsion. Infrastructure for charging is important. One of our initial pil lars, from the very beginning, is to offer the local authorities charging infrastructure in the places where we will race, even when we leave the loca tion. Then, the people can start thinking of buy ing an electric leisure boat and we attack straight away the automotive paradigm of the lack of in “Thisfrastructure.lastexample offers me the chance to speak about the third pillar, sustainability. We are in credibly focused and authentically keen on driv ing longer-lasting, large-scale projects about sustainability. We are partnering with one of the most important marine biologists in the world who will be our chief scientist officer. We will look for local sponsors and partners who want to help us in delivering this project with local forces and local people. They will be trained, educated, and will execute the work. It is more an ESG view of not only providing positive impact to the local communities but also delivering with action and a sustainability plan,” asserted Rodi.
E1 Boats Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 106 7
8www.e1series.com Issue 106 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Technology and the future The greatest challenge for the organizers of the E1 World Championship was delivering the electric watercraft prototype in record time. In just eight months, Rodi’s team and partners engineered and manufactured something that has never been seen before. Advanced hydrofoil technolo gy allows this watercraft, the RaceBird, to hover above the sea while minimizing drag and opti mizing energy efficiency. The vessel was co-cre ated by SeaBird Technologies founder Sophi Horne, alongside Brunello Acampora, Founder & CEO of Victory Marine, the official RaceBird en gineering and manufacturing supplier of the E1 World Championship. Inspired by the image of seabirds hovering above the waves, the RaceBird is a fusion of picture-perfect nature, sleek aes thetics, and cutting-edge technology. Having benefited from cross-fertilization between auto motive and watercraft electrification, Rodi hopes to change the lay of the land in the future: “My vision with the next generation of the boat is that instead of learning from automotive and mo torsport and bringing it into the marine industry, I want to get the marine industry to the level that is going for automotive, air mobility, and every sort of vehicle that is using electric propulsion. “I want to make sure to deliver a new, exciting sport. I believe that, like every organization on the planet, you cannot design a new venture without including a contribution to the world. It has to be delivered au thentically and needs to contribute to and improve the condition of human beings. If I can see thousands of people showing up on the shore in beautiful cit ies like Miami and Monaco and if we can offer these people some hours of enjoyment, I would be happy. But, if we can offer to all the rest of the citizens better conditions of their coastal area and the technology to allow their mayors and politicians to change gear and go to a different level… Well, that will be the day that we will have hit the target and I will be an even happier person and entrepreneur,” ended Rodi.
E1 Boats
E1’s RB.01 vessel demonstration Innovation Feature Issue 106 · Business Enquirer Magazine 9
E1 Boats
www.e1series.com
info@busenq.comwww.busenq.com
