Extreme E’s first race location will be… Greenland

The organisers of Extreme E – Formula E’s off-road cousin – have announced the first location for the brand-new race series set to start in 2021.

Hosting one of the proposed five rounds for the inaugural season will be Greenland (that is if Mr Trump doesn’t get his chequebook out, of course). The circuit, which aims to cover an area no larger than 10km2, will be located close to the Russell Glacier and will “incorporate existing obstacles and features with elevation changes and jumps without the need to adapt the environment,” say the sports’ organisers.  

This is good. Top Gear likes jumps.

According to experts, the island – an autonomous region of Denmark – has seen some of the worst effects of climate change in recent years and the race aims to draw attention to this via its live streaming service.

“On August 1, which was one of the days that I was in Greenland with the race team, the ice cap lost twelve and a half billion tonnes of ice, a new daily record loss,” said event advisor Professor Peter Wadhams, of Cambridge University.

Founder Alejandro Agag also said: “I am incredibly excited to be bringing Extreme E’s unique electric racing format to the front line of the global climate emergency here in Greenland. I promised Extreme E would break ground in motorsport and this really proves I meant it.

“As well as being a serious motor race series, Extreme E has a strong sporting purpose to promote the adoption of electric mobility in the fight to lower global emission levels, an issue we can no longer ignore, especially here in Greenland.”

We’re still yet to find out the four other locations for Extreme E’s first season, but we do know that the Himalayas, a desert, a rainforest and an Indian Ocean Island are all being looked at. The aim, of course, is to cause as little damage to the surrounding environment as possible.

Want to know more? Check out Extreme E’s awesome 550bhp racer by clicking these blue words.