Formula E just raised the performance ceiling for electric racing by a significant margin. The Gen 4 car produces 600 kW, roughly 805 horsepower, up from 350 kW in the previous Gen 3 EVO. That puts it within about 200 horsepower of a current Formula 1 car. On grooved road-specification tires, not racing slicks, it goes from 0 to 60 mph in 1.88 seconds and from 0 to 120 mph in 4.4 seconds. Around permanent racetracks, lap times will fall by an average of 10 seconds compared to the previous generation. On street circuits, the improvement is around 5 seconds per lap. The car is four-wheel drive as standard, with a redesigned body built to visually match what the performance numbers suggest.
The grooved tires are not an oversight. Formula E operates on what the series calls a race-to-road philosophy: technology developed on track has to carry commercial relevance for road vehicle development. Slicks would be faster, but they reduce the commercial case for tire manufacturers to participate. They also make the racing more processional; the sliding and unpredictability of grooved tires is part of what the series values. Series CEO Jeff Dods has been open about the strategic shift toward more permanent tracks: Gen 4 can reach over 300 km/h before braking zones, and circuits designed for the previous generation’s speed are now simply too tight. Some established street venues, including ExCeL London, will no longer fit what the car needs. The 2026 season already ran sold-out rounds at Mexico City and a new Madrid circuit, both permanent tracks built into the calendar in preparation for this generation.
Development driver James Rossa, a former test driver at BAR and Force India in Formula 1, says Gen 4 brings Formula E close enough to F1 performance that drivers from Formula 2 and Formula 3 who don’t get an F1 seat now have a genuinely competitive world championship to target. The series has no ambition to match F1 outright: the FIA would not allow it, and Formula E doesn’t need to. What matters is that the performance and the skill set required have moved close enough to the top level that the career logic changes for young talent. More competitive drivers attract more fans following those drivers, which brings more sponsors and revenue to the series. That is the purpose of the leap, not raw speed for its own sake.
Bottom line: Formula E has been easy to treat as a niche category. A car that reaches 0-60 in 1.88 seconds on road tires and sits within 200 horsepower of a current F1 car is a harder thing to dismiss. Gen 4 is a genuine step up.