India could play pivotal role in EV revolution: Formula E's Julia Palle

The experience of taking the Formula E to India was "mind-blowing", says sustainability director Julia Palle, who feels that the Asian country can play a pivotal role in the electric vehicle revolution that the world is witnessing.

The city of Hyderabad had played host to two races in Round 4 of the ongoing ninth season of the series in February this year.

India's automobile industry is the fifth largest globally and is expected to become the third largest by 2030. The size of India's electric vehicle market is also growing each year with surging fuel prices also providing a push to the sales of EVs.

According to an estimate, India sold 12,43,258 units of electric vehicles in 2022-23, which is 154 percent more than the figures registered in 2021-22.

Palle admitted that India will be a key player going forward.

"India was absolutely mind blowing. It was great to enter this market. I mean such an emerging market altogether as such a strong economic power in the world, but also an emerging market in terms of the adoption of the latest technologies," Palle told PTI in an interaction.

"It's obviously a country that longs to be super tech savvy and there is also a huge opportunity from the mobility perspective because Indians are really equipping themselves with the latest mobility solutions and EV takes a huge part in that.

"So it's very important for us to be at the centre of this EV revolution that is going on in the world. And India plays a key role, a pivotal role in this."

The provisional calender is out for the next season but Hyderabad did not find a place though it was a multi-year contract for the race to stay in India.

Asked about that, Palle said, "We are actually in discussions with the Indian government to be back next year and we're really hoping that in the next couple of weeks we're going to be able to come from that we're back in India."

For Palle, the sustainability is a combination of the environmental impact, the social inclusivity, and the economic prosperity.

"That's exactly what we're trying to achieve with an additional element that links back to the specificity of our sport, which is innovation," she said.

Further explaining the inlcusivity, she said they are working on new initiatives after having achieved maturity in terms of the environmental side of the programmes.

"We have an iconic programme that is called 'Girls on Track' where young females are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds in the different communities. It's really about inspiring them and showcasing to them that motorsport is a welcoming environment to them should they want to and should they picture themselves working in motorsport.

"So basically, you can be so many things with informally as a young and talented female, you can be an engineer and a team, you can be a mechanic, you can be a journalist, you can be a sustainability professional, you can be a lawyer."

Palle also said that Formula E was created with sustainability at its heart and their mission in the last nine years was to make sure they walk the talk in terms of sustainability.

"We've several times really exceeded where we were thinking we would be able to go. As much as sustainability is the race with no finish line within our ethos and our mindset, we've been really able to achieve, I mean being the first Motorsports series in the world to work in line with the international standard for sustainability in events.

"The ISO 2201 standard, the first part in the world to achieve net zero carbon since inception back in 2020. The first spot in the world to develop a global partnership with UNICEF on other climate related work and impact positively children internationally. So there's been a lot of very proud moments," she said.

"Together with UNICEF, we've impacted 2.5 million children globally.