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Formula E chief executive Jeff Dodds has said the Asian market is “underserved by motorsport” ahead of the series’ debut in Japan later this year.
The all-electric series confirmed it would be racing around the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition centre last year, and its debut race in the city is set to introduce Formula E to a new market.
“For world championship motorsport, the Asian market is underserved,” Dodds (pictured above right) told BlackBook Motorsport. “I definitely feel we can do more in Asia.
“Also, Asian markets [are] the fastest adopting EV [electric vehicle] markets in the world. In China, 38 per cent of new cars sold are electric vehicles, equating to 20 per cent of all new EVs globally. The prime minister of Thailand [told me] that 40 per cent of new cars being sold in the Thai market are EV. It’s a perfect market for us.”
While Formula One has a solid presence in the region, it has increasingly moved away from Asia in pursuit of the US market. The global motorsport series competes in Japan, China and Singapore but has lost Grands Prix in India, South Korea and Malaysia since 2013.
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For Dodds, the opportunity to race in the Tokyo city centre was too good to turn down, especially as “they’ve never shut down the centre of Tokyo for anything outside of the Tokyo Marathon”.
It is a big commitment for Formula E to go to Japan, especially financially, but Dodds sees the makings of a fruitful long-term relationship.
“It’s an expensive market to race in Japan,” he said. “But [it was] made all the better when we launched those ticket sales and we were sold out within a day.
“So we could have probably doubled the number of tickets and sold them quite, quite comfortably. So that gave me great hope that this is a potential long-term future home for Formula E.
“I think there’s a perfectly synergistic relationship between Japan – highly technically advanced, highly innovative motorsport fanbase, very focused on sustainability – and us.
“I think there’s potential for a very long-term partnership there.”
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