Lagos, renowned for its water bodies that have earned it the tag: city of aquatic splendour, will put this splendour on display when it plays host to the second edition of the E1 Series electric boat racing championship. This edition, which would feature nine teams, is the first to be hosted on African waters.

And for the Founder and CEO of the E1 Series, Rodi Basso, Lagos presented a combination of great relationships and high-level vision that was too strong to ignore.

“We found in Lagos an amazing partnership, and of course, we all know business is nothing without relationships. And here we found an incredible alignment of high-level vision. So we are privileged to play a small part in the compelling vision that people around me and in this country are trying to drive forward,” he said.

Narrating the motivation behind founding the E1 Series championship, Basso, an aerospace engineer who has worked with Motorsport franchises like Formula 1 and Ferrari, noted that the E1 Series was the product of a conversation between himself and his friend and Co-founder, Alejandro Agag, in London.

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Alejandro, who had invested in a startup called Silver Technologies that had developed the boat under Basso’s leadership and mentorship, had asked Basso for investment suggestions in the space. This was because of Basso’s massive experience in the world of technology applied in sport, particularly clean technologies.

“So I came back to Alejandro to say, ‘Why don’t we build a new global sport platform, based on cleantech, and we go to amazing places around the world. We build a new map of sporting new opportunities?‘” He said.

That was how the E1 Series was birthed, with the first edition held last year across various cities like Jeddah, Venice, Monaco, with the grand finale held in Hong Kong. The series features futuristic, hydrofoiling boats called RaceBirds, which use electric propulsion to “fly” above the water. The championship primarily aims to raise awareness for electric technologies and drive their development.

So far, it is the only electric powerboat championship in the world. The competition sees male and female pilots racing together across seven teams owned by seven prominent businessmen and celebrities. They include Didier Drogba, Will Smith, Sean Brady and several others.

The content broadcast reaches more than 150 territories in the world, and the numbers, the visibility, and interest prompted the team to increase the number of races from five in the first season to seven this year. The event will bring about 250 sportspeople to Lagos, working with about 350-500 professionals and watched by more than 1,000 fans.

Culture meets sustainability in E1 Series

Speaking about the purpose of the E1 Series championship, Rodi Basso says it is essentially a contest where culture meets sustainability. He noted that, beyond asking for requirements of the hosting cities, the championship is also bringing its own requirements that are world-class as an inspiration for how sustainability can be promoted.

“So our goal is to be a symbol of sustainability. It is zero emission, it does not produce any waves, and again, it is a reduction of 80 per cent of acoustic noise. So this is the first example of impact. We have an infrastructure to charge the batteries. We use sustainable power generation in order to produce electricity to let the boats run. And of course, we have a very long list of requirements that are trying again to produce any event with the lowest possible impact,” he said.

He also explained that the racing boats are a blend of technology and culture as they bring together the technology and culture for sailing, motorsports, and powered boating into the race machines.

“So, the way we have innovated by cross-fertilisation, my vision for the next generation of boats is actually to lead the way and test on our water prototype platform, new technologies that will drive the solutions of the future. So the conversations are open from today with technology suppliers from across the world, and of course from Lagos too, to apply their technologies, learn stress the technology on the racing application and drive the solution for their future commercial solution. That is the opportunity of motorsports,” he said.

He further lauded the team owners as excellent people in sports and entertainment, noting that they were carefully selected to be inspirations for the next generation.

“We want to inspire, we want to be an inspirational sports product that will inspire the young generation to be part of the sport; to be an engineer, an expert in mathematics, physics or science. We need a lot of this for the future of mobility on the water, on the roads, and in general, in all the countries,” he said.