CCS2 ports 600 kW fast-charging pitstops are coming to Formula E After a couple of years' delay, mid-race recharging is ready to go. Jonathan M. Gitlin Jan 23, 2025 8:25 am | 6 Credit: Oscar Lumley/LAT Images Credit: Oscar Lumley/LAT Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreNow 11 seasons in, Formula E has come a long way from its sometimes-chaotic early days and those mid-race pitstops to change cars. Car swaps went away a long time ago, but when the series gets back to racing next month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the mid-race pit stop will be back. Except this time, the cars will be quickly recharged by powerful 600 kW fast chargers.The new race feature, which Formula E is calling "pit boost," is a 30-second pitstop, during which time the car receives a 600 kW fast chargemore than twice as much power as a Tesla Superchargerthat adds 10 percent (3.85 kWh) to the battery's state of charge. It's mandatory for every car in the race, but a team is only allowed to charge one of its two cars at a time, and only within a specified window of time during the race.Some people are probably going to be unimpressed with the length of the stopswhile they're shorter than you might see at a prototype stop at Le Mans or Daytona, you also won't see mechanics running around changing tires. We're also talking an order of magnitude longer than a current Formula 1 pitstop, which will no doubt be used as ammunition by Formula E's detractors, just as the lap-time comparisons are.But the laws of physics are what they are. You can only safely put so much energy into a battery in a given time. Any recharge of a significant percent of the battery's state of charge would take several minutes, and that's really not conducive to an entertaining sprint race. (And it's not like the TV director would spend the entire time focusing on a car in the pits as opposed to all the other cars racing on track.)Trying new stuffPit boost joins attack mode in the Formula E box of tricks. The sport has never been afraid to try new things as a way to entertain the fans, and although not every experiment has been a raging success, others cannot be written off as failures.Fan boostwhere people voted online to give three drivers extra power during parts of the racewas not well-received and contributed little to the show. But "attack mode," a time-limited power-up that's activated by driving over a specific part of the racetrack, has added an interesting strategy component to the races and delivered plenty of excitement.Formula E has also shown it can respond to criticismthis year there's a new compound in Hankook tires that's far racier than the durable-but-gripless rubber of the last two seasons. And in addition to adding more power, during attack mode the front electric motor is allowed to actually send power to those wheelsnormally it is relegated to just harvesting energy under deceleration.Formula E wants pit boost to do something similar, but it neither replaces attack mode nor is tied to itit's now a second thing that race strategists are going to have to deal with."I think it's gonna be fantastic because it's gonna create a little bit of jeopardy into the race. And there are teams that are gonna be using that energy in different ways in different moments. And definitely, you know, it's gonna bring that excitement that we want," said Albert Longo, Formula E's co-founder and chief championship officer.The team view"Pit boost is mainly a strategic element, which, like any change of this nature, will impact our approach, as a stop mid race isnt something weve had in the Championship since the Gen1 era," said Frederic Espinos, team director at Lola Yamaha ABT Formula E Team."Choosing the right moment to pit, which balances the risk of losing track position with the extra power boost, will be essential, especially as only one car at a time will be able to come in for the pit boost, so we will have to go for slightly different strategies even if naturally it would seem going as soon as possible will be the best option. To add further jeopardy, pit boost will be available during the safety car, which could present a beneficial opportunity if you are lucky but if not it could destroy your race," Espinos said."Equally as important to the strategy of when to take pit boost is the execution of it. Although it isnt somewhere you can really gain time, there is the potential to lose a lot, so practice will be key as we introduce this new feature. Ultimately, we can expect added unpredictability in the race and a lot of learnings for the teams, particularly in the early stages," Espinos said.Not every race will feature pit boostthe idea is to give the series some variation. So one race of the Jeddah double-header will require pit boost, but the other will not. "What we thought for season 11 is that basically, let's launch this new system in places where we can do a completely different race the day after," Longo said. "Let's implement that in places where basically, in only 24 hours, you're gonna see a completely different race. So you are actually going to be seeing the difference... by the pit boost," Longo said.That's the plan for this season, at any rate; if it proves a success, Longo said it would probably be rolled out much more widely next year. Formula E says it's confident in the reliability of the chargers or it wouldn't be introducing themit called off pit boost in both 2023 and 2024, after all. But there will be a couple of spares in the paddock in case a team (or two) experiences a failure, according to Formula E's head of championship, Pablo Martino.The Jeddah double-header will be held next month on February 1415. If the first two rounds of this season were anything to go by, it should be worth watching.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 6 Comments