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Formula E is on track financially, with NYC race coming up

LONDON - Formula E could be breaking even already were it not investing for the future, chief executive Alejandro Agag said on Monday after the electric motor racing series reported continuing losses in its latest annual accounts. Accounts filed at Companies House showed Formula E Operations Ltd reduced its operating loss to 33.7 million euros ($38.32 million) at end-July 2016, a period covering its second season, from a previous 62.7 million. Net liabilities rose to 107.2 million euros from 72.1 million, while total revenues reached 56.6 million from a previous 19.7 million. "Everything is going according to plan," Agag, whose city-based series will be racing in New York for the first time on July 15 and 16, told Reuters in an interview at his London offices. "Actually we are doing incredibly well financially according to our plan. "We could have broken even this year but we decided to invest more in marketing and promotion. We decided to add races like the one in New York, which is in year one a race which is costing, we have significant capital expenditure." "It's really up to us when we want to go to break even or not. We could be in break-even now, we could be in break-even next season but we may decide to invest more in marketing and promotion." Agag said the shareholders, including John Malone's Liberty Global and Discovery Communications, were supportive of the strategy and the series had attracted more investors, sponsors and car manufacturers. The New York races will be held in Brooklyn's Red hook neighborhood, with lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop with technology partner Qualcomm securing the naming rights. MANUFACTURER INTEREST Agag, whose series plays down competition with Liberty Media-owned Formula One, said more carmakers were set to join a series increasingly aligned with their commercial focus. "I think Formula E has become the preferred destination for manufacturers and there are a few reasons for that," said the Spaniard. "Obviously, one is that it is electric and manufacturers are more and more focusing on electric cars...and we are the only platform really to help them promote that technology and those types of cars. "And second, because of the cost. The cost of the team in Formula E is very moderate." Whereas top Formula One teams can burn through $300 million a year, as can the likes of Toyota in the World Endurance Championship, the budgets of successful Formula E teams are between 10 and 15 million.

Jeremy Clarkson's Jag going up for auction

Fans of Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson might want to make plans to be in the UK next weekend. On August 24, Anglia Car Auctions in King's Lynn is auctioning off Clarkson's black 1999 Jaguar XJR as part of its classic sale. According to the auction house, the Jag was "originally the daily drive" of Clarkson and has had one registered owner since.
Clarkson's former ride clocks in at 93,000 miles and has an estimated price of 2,500 to 4,000 pounds. At roughly $3,300 to $5,300 in US dollars, that could be quite a steal for a hardcore Jeremy Clarkson fan. And with a supercharged 4.0-liter V8 engine and lavish interior, it's a luxury sport sedan lover's dream.
This isn't the first time Clarkson has crossed paths with Anglia Car Auctions. Back in 2009, he and fellow Top Gear stars James May and Richard Hammond made an appearance at another vintage auction to buy vehicles for a future segment of the show.

BMW and Jaguar Land Rover to jointly develop electric car tech

FRANKFURT – BMW and Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday said they will jointly develop electric motors, transmissions and power electronics, unveiling yet another industry alliance designed to lower the costs of developing electric cars. Both carmakers are under pressure to roll out zero-emission vehicles to meet stringent anti-pollution rules, but have struggled to maintain profit margins faced with the rising costs of making electric, connected and autonomous cars. "Together, we have the opportunity to cater more effectively for customer needs by shortening development time and bringing vehicles and state-of-the-art technologies more rapidly to market," said BMW board member Klaus Froehlich. BMW and Jaguar Land Rover said they will save costs through shared development, production planning and joint purchasing of electric car components. Both companies will produce electric drivetrains in their own manufacturing facilities, BMW said. The BMW Jaguar Land Rover pact comes as rivals FiatChrysler and Renault explore a $35 billion tie-up of the Italian-American and French carmaking groups. Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover's engineering director said, "We've proven we can build world beating electric cars but now we need to scale the technology to support the next generation of Jaguar and Land Rover products." BMW was in talks with rival Daimler about developing electric car components but was also in discussions with Jaguar Land Rover, a company it once owned, to explore an alliance on engines. BMW already has a deal to supply an 8 cylinder engine to Jaguar Land Rover. Carmakers are increasingly open to sharing electric car parts because the technology is expensive and because customers no longer buy a car based on what engine a vehicle has. "Carmakers are much less precious about sharing electric car technology because it is much harder to create product differentiation with electric car tech. They all accelerate fast, and everybody can do quality and ride and handling," according to Carl-Peter Forster a former chief executive of Tata Motors and a former BMW executive. Jaguar Land Rover is still run by former BMW managers, including Ralf Speth the company's chief executive who spent 20 years at BMW prior to joining JLR, and Wolfgang Ziebart, the engineer who oversaw Jaguar's I-Pace electric car program, who is a former head of research and development at BMW.