Jenson Button’s Extreme E Off-Road Racing Team Will Get Technical Help From Lotus

Lotus Engineering and Jenson Button Extreme E Racing (JBXE) have announced a partnership for the upcoming season of Extreme E racing.

The series pits aggressive, electric off-roaders against one another in a five-round season. To help it compete, JBXE will be receiving technical support from Lotus Engineering, which will also sponsor the team.

“Lotus is a great British brand that is inextricably linked to motorsport, so we are delighted to welcome Lotus Engineering to JBXE,” said Button, team founder and former Formula 1 world champion. “To announce that a brand such as Lotus Engineering is coming on this journey with us is a proud moment for myself and the team. We are very excited about our new technical partnership.”

Read More: Extreme E Off-Roaders To Race In The Amazon, Nepal, Greenland, And More In 2021

Although all the teams racing will be provided with the same vehicle, the Spark Odyssey 21, teams will have to set up and test their cars as in any spec series. The SUV is made by the same manufacturer that builds Formula E’s cars.

“The complex technicalities of EV racing present a fascinating challenge, and using our learnings from more than a decade of electrifying sports cars – most recently with the Lotus Evija hypercar – we can bring valuable knowledge to the team,” said Matt Windle managing director of Lotus Cars.

The Spark Odyssey 21 was designed from the ground up for the Extreme E championship. It’s built on a tubular niobium-reinforced steel frame while its batteries are supplied by Williams Advanced Engineering. They power 550 hp worth of electric motors that can get the SUV to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds.

Jenson Button will race alongside teammate Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky, a multiple Scandinavian Touring Car race winner. Their first race will take place on April 3 and 4 at Wadi Rum, Alula, in the Saudi Arabian desert.