Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has been announced as one of the host cities of the international Formula E racing tournament taking place in February 2022.
Earlier this week, Jaguar and its bid partner e-Movement announced that Cape Town had been included as a host city for a round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in February 2022.
This follows the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) official announcement following a meeting to approve the season eight calendar by Formula E Operations.
Formula E, sanctioned by FIA, is a class of motorsport that uses only electric-powered cars and has been operational since 2014.
As the founding partner to e-Movement, Jaguar South Africa has made it noteworthy that it has supported the bid to host the first Formula E event in Cape Town.
Richard Gouverneur, Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover South Africa, says: “This is a historic first for our country, and Jaguar South Africa is ecstatic to have been part of the team to secure Formula E for Cape Town and South Africa.”
Iain Banner, Chairperson of e-Movement (the promoters of the Cape Town leg of the World Championship), adds: “We are delighted and honoured to be included on the calendar after two years of bidding to make this dream a reality.”
Mayor Dan Plato said in 2019, the City was approached by the Cape Town Formula E Consortium, and is looking forward to hosting the event.
“Cape Town is pleased to be chosen as one of the cities to participate in the Formula E tournament. The event will unlock major investment, job creation and tourism potential through identifying Cape Town as the racing destination of the African continent.
“We believe this event offers major potential to local business and will be a huge attraction for the residents of our City,” said Plato.
Plato said that Cape Town hosted the massively successful Red Bull Cape Town Circuit on Sunday, 2 June 2019, which led to discussions around adding Formula E as a new international sporting event on our shores.
He added that Cape Town has already proven that it is capable of hosting major international motor sporting events with the success of the FIA Rallycross Championship at Killarney, as well as the annual Drift City at the Grand Parade.
In the three years that Formula E has been hosted in Hong Kong, it has contributed approximately R1.4 billion to that economy.
The cars run on 100% renewable energy, and the mayor said that having such an event would also assist Cape Town in raising awareness and taking action against air pollution.
e-Movement has been working closely with the City of Cape Town to finalise processes so that all the requirements can be met to stage a successful event early in 2022.
Plato added: “We look forward to finalising internal processes in order to meet the relevant requirements for staging such an exciting event.
“The City has the necessary infrastructure and skills to host an event of this size, and we are confident that it will further cement Cape Town’s global reputation as the World’s Leading Festival and Event Destination,” added Plato.
“The City of Cape Town has, in principle, decided to support the event with R2 million in cash, subject to the event returning to the City for future tournaments.
“A further R2m will be provided in the form of services, on the above premise.”