Fast, furious and futuristic: Extreme E celebrates successful first championship and looks ahead to second season By Adrian Pennington
Thursday, January 20, 2022 - 11:45
Print This Story
Cristina Gutierrez (ESP)/Sebastien Loeb (FRA), X44, Dorset
Rosberg X Racing (RXR) were crowned champions of the first season of Extreme E, securing the title after finishing fourth in the season-ending Jurassic X Prix in Dorset in December. RXR drivers Molly Taylor and Johan Kristoffersson took the title after winning three of the five events of the inaugural FIA-sanctioned all-electric SUV rally championship.
The Jurassic X Prix capped what's been a very positive first year for the new sport, perhaps exceeding even the expectation of its founders. The second season drives off in just over a month.
In data supplied by Extreme E, live races were watched on average by 18.6 million people around the world, with a global audience close to 100 million across the season. Some 57 broadcasters aired the action, including Discovery, Sky Sports, Fox Sports, ProSieben Maxx, RDS, ESPN in Latin America, TV Globo in Brazil and Channel Zero in China. Interest was strongest in Europe, particularly from the UK, Germany and Spain.
Across social media the sport attracted one million followers, a total of 10.7 million engagements and 141 million video views. Of the 30,000-plus media articles it generated in 2021 (versus 13,957 in 2020) coverage was 97% positive (according to Kantar Media) with the main concentration being on environmental issues (35%) and electrification (32%).
Capturing imaginations
This is mass market here and now, says Extreme E chief marketing officer Ali Russell. The product has captured people's imagination and proved the world was ready for something new. It's been a huge success.
The combination of motorsport competition and climate change evangelism is what Russell calls sport for purpose, speaking to SVG Europe.
He says: We're creating a bedrock for innovation and new technology and to use sport to communicate a topic that has failed to cut through with many people.
Bravely going ahead and launching in the teeth of a global pandemic actually helped the product's presentation on screen, he adds, since people didn't question why there were no fans at the tracks which was our biggest concern at the start .
COVID-19 did however impact the production behind the scenes as the inaugural event in Saudi Arabia, initially planned for March, was pushed back to April and a proposed event in Nepal had to be cancelled due to the complexity of getting to the region. A replacement X Prix in Argentina and another planned X Prix in Brazil also had to be cancelled as a result of the crisis in South America.
We made a pre-emptive strike [in cancelling South America] because we felt that the pandemic was going to get worse and we didn't want to all get there and find ourselves caught in another strain [of the virus]. What it enabled us to do was stick to the Mediterranean and closer to home where there were just as many options for creating stories.
We're creating a bedrock for innovation and new technology and to use sport to communicate a topic that has failed to cut through with many people
The season ending finale at Bovington army base was preceded by an X Prix on Sardinia.
Russell adds: It's clear that the impact of climate change is a challenge for Europe just as it is for the Amazon or the Sahara, so moving forward we'll probably have more races closer to home than we envisaged before.
Indeed, Scotland remains a possible host location on the 2022 calendar with Sardinia inked in for a return along with Neom - the green energy city being built in Saudi Arabia - northern Chile and Uruguay.
Getting and in out of environments was very challenging and if we hadn't owned our own ship it would have been impossible, Russell says.
Extreme E used its own ship, the St Helena, which acted as floating transport system, paddock, science lab and COVID bubble. Although running on a form of diesel, this mode of transport is a major contributor to the enterprise's bid to lower the impact of the travel logistics compared to flying.
Production in all terrain
Production partner Aurora was involved from the championship's inception and among other things shared responsibilities (with NEP and Al Kamel Systems) for presentation and design, the spec and delivery of facilities on site, and the design and integration of VR and augmented graphics.
It was a challenge building a very forward-looking set of facilities and programming under a compressed time frame and amid COVID-conditions, but from race one onwards everything came together as expected, says David O'Carroll, Aurora's operations director.
Aurora used Unreal Engine for the first time in live sport, enhancing the graphical output of the more traditional Vizrt systems.
Our production team was amazed by the level of detail that Unreal worlds can be crafted in, says O'Carroll. The flatter desert setting perhaps didn't show this off to its best extent but in Senegal, where the course featured trees and rocks, and in Dorset the detail in the graphical overlay was incredible.
Extreme E worked hard to weave environmental education and information alongside the on-track competition in what has been described as a hybrid programming format.
From a production perspective the team worked really hard to make the two consistent and equal - and in a way that the audience didn't feel was contrived, he adds.
(L-R): Kevin Hansen (SWE), JBXE Extreme-E Team, and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (SWE), JBXE Extreme-E Team, second position; Cristina Gutierrez (ESP), X44 and Sebastien Loeb (FRA), X44, first position, Catie Munnings (GBR), Andretti United Extreme E, and Timmy Han
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
Fast, furious and futuristic: Extreme E celebrates successful first championship and looks ahead to second season By Adrian Pennington 
