ACO: “Too Early” to Back Flymove Battery Swap Project

Photo: Flymove Dianche

It is “far too early” to confirm whether the recently announced Flymove Bertone Motorsport program, using battery swap technology, could feature in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, according to the ACO.

ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil told e-racing365 that the organization has been consulted about Flymove Bertone’s plans, which were announced on Monday.

The Anglo-Italian team plans to launch its fully electric race car in spring 2020, with a race debut in 2021.

It’s pledged to establish a “stable position” in the FIA World Endurance Championship and wants to pursue an entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a Garage 56 competitor.

While he admits the project looks interesting, Beaumesnil says it’s too early in its development process to permit it in ACO competition at this stage.

“They have contacted me and said they would like to do Garage 56 with this technology,” he said.

“I have said you need to do a feasibility study and come back to us later with a complete project and we will tell you if we can open the doors of Garage 56 or not. But we are at just this stage.

“For sure at the moment there is no approval from the ACO. At this stage it’s far too early.”

Despite not committing yet, Beaumesnil clarified that the ACO does remain “open” to new technologies such as this being tested at Le Mans.

The ACO has strongly backed hydrogen as the future of endurance racing, ramping up its MissionH24 program to include a lap of Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of last month’s race.

“We are open on all new technologies that may have some interest for the automotive industry,” Beaumesnil said.

“I think this is what makes our sport strong, is that the diversity of technology, I think, is probably what will happen in the future in the automotive future.

“I don’t think we will only have electric cars or only hydrogen cars. It will probably be a diversity.

“Everybody wants to test, as long as we can do something that works at Le Mans that is safe, that works in terms of performance and is acceptable at all of the levels, we are interested to look at it.

“But there is a long evaluation process before we reach this point.”

John Dagys contributed to this report.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.