Dow’s Collaboration With Jaguar TCS Racing At Miami E-Prix – A Focus On Thermal Management

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As part of my gig with CleanTechnica, I had an opportunity to see firsthand Dow’s collaboration with Jaguar TCS Racing in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Initially, I was a bit skeptical about accepting the invitation. After all, unchecked pollution from Dow was documented last year by the Environmental Integrity Project, and the Dow plant in Brazoria County, Texas, was the top wastewater polluter of three toxic chemicals: dioxin, nitrogen and phosphorus, and dioxin. Could Dow’s collaboration with Jaguar TCS Racing and its research into Formula E thermal management be any kind of mea culpa? I decided to take a chance. 

In the background of the interview a whirring sound resonated from the nearby garages — it was as if a jet engine were rising in power and intensity. Instead, newly unpacked and assembled, Formula E cars were being tested. We were seated in an adjacent area of tables and chairs with Carlos Padilla II, who introduced himself as head of global sports partnerships for Dow. His role as liaison between Dow and Jaguar TCS Racing was our focus. 

“Dow and Jaguar TCS Racing make great partners because at the end of the day, we are aligned in our core values,” Padilla began. “Because of that alignment we are able to work better and faster together on technical integration to advance sustainable mobility.” 

Dow states in its press release that its sports partnerships help “advancing innovation through collaboration and R&D, igniting progress in sustainability and diversity across industries, and developing next-gen offerings for our customers.” 

Padilla believes that innovation, inclusion, customer centrality, and sustainability are all Dow core values that are compatible with Jaguar TCS Racing. Part of the evolution Dow wants to see, he said, can be obtained using “sport as a catalyst to evolve. We take the learnings from the track and apply them to the road in real time,” Padilla explained. “We try to advance the material science. How do these cars react on the track? How do the tires and road interact with each other? We’re going to learn a lot more here than in a lab.” 

As the Official Materials Science Partner of Jaguar TCS Racing, Dow elaborates on its website that it continually tests and refines mobility innovations “that unlock new levels of sustainability and performance for electric race cars and road vehicles alike. The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship – a net-zero all-electric motorsport competition – provides us with a high-performance laboratory.” 

The Formula E Racetrack as a Lab

Electric vehicles need optimal temperatures (neither warm nor cold) to run efficiently. The right temps translate into proper working of the battery pack, power electronic systems, and motor in the electric vehicle. 

The latest GEN Evo Formula E cars deploy up to 350 kW of energy and reach speeds of 200 mph, but this means they produce more heat than previous generations. Their thermal management starts with maintaining batteries and electronic devices within their optimal temperature window for both safety and performance in Formula E cars. If battery cells are too cold, battery performance and vehicle range reduce. If they’re too hot, the battery cells start to degrade, shortening battery life. 

To remedy these scenarios, Dow’s MobilityScience™ team collaborates with Jaguar TCS Racing to develop and integrate thermally conductive materials that keep key components within the Jaguar I-TYPE 7 powertrain operating within their optimal temperature window. Controlling temperature is especially important for electric vehicles like Formula E race cars, as, in racing, effective thermal management means drivers can compete faster and longer out on the track. 

All EV innovations Dow has helped Jaguar TCS Racing to develop and/or integrate can be shared to benefit future road car development. “It’s taking the key learnings at the track and then bringing them to the more commercial side of their business,” Padilla continued. This includes technology affecting thermal management, adhesion, and electromagnetic interference. 

Thermal management in the Jaguar I-TYPE 7 powertrain, for example, is regulated with help from a state-of-the-art material from Dow that provides optimized performance in thermal conductivity, dielectric strength, and durability.

For road cars such as the Jaguar I‑PACE drivers can gain up to 30 miles (or 50 km) more range between charges if three temperatures are controlled: the battery, the motors, and the driver’s cabin. The I-PACE’s sophisticated thermal management system heats and cools all of these individually and harvests energy from one to the other. So, if heat is generated in the electric motor, this is used to heat either the interior or the battery, or both. Transferring heat energy in this way means the battery is used less for heating, resulting in more of the battery’s power being available for greater range. 

In addition to harvesting energy produced by the vehicle itself, the I‑PACE uses a highly efficient heat pump to heat the car’s interior. The impact of the heat pump is considerable. When the outside temperature is between 50°F and 59°F, using the heat pump — rather than power exclusively from the battery — can extend the range of the I‑PACE by up to 30 miles (50 km). 

The Jaguar TCS Racing Formula E vehicle, the Jaguar I-TYPE 7 can recapture over 40% of the energy it expends through clever braking. How? By utilizing the latest regenerative braking technology, which is also a big feature of the electric I‑PACE SUV. With a regular internal combustion engine, a vehicle is slowed via conventional friction brakes, which press the brake pads against the discs. The kinetic energy from the vehicle is converted into heat energy, which is essentially wasted. However, in a battery electric vehicle (BEV), the electric motor can convert that kinetic energy into electricity to top up the battery, increasing the number of miles you can drive on a single charge. 

In Formula E, the benefit of regenerative braking in racing is energy efficiency, which can translate into extra performance and potentially faster lap times. The intensity of electric racing really tests the vehicle’s parts to the limit — as well as their engineers — and with JLR involved in developing both electric race cars and electric road cars, there will be mutual benefits to Dow’s collaboration. 

“Every partner we work with is an extension of our team,” James Barclay, Jaguar TCS Racing Team Principal, described during a separate interview session. He described how innovations from the team’s partners “form part of the building blocks of our success. Together, we’re working towards a cleaner, smarter future.” 

Final Thoughts about Dow’s Collaboration with Jaguar TCS Racing

One of seven Dow goals is a “Valuing Nature” goal, which is largely unaddressed by most major corporations. Accepting that there is unaccounted-for value from nature and undiscovered nature-based solutions to business problems, Dow believes that there is business value from projects that are good for ecosystems. (Details on Dow’s next-generation Water & Nature strategy and related targets can be found on this site.)

Dow’s capital, real estate, and R&D projects go through a nature screen as part of the regular approval process. This means thousands of projects every year are evaluated for how they benefit from or impact nature. At an early stage, Dow project designers and managers answer basic questions about how their project design benefits from or impacts air, water, soil, habitat, and the benefits ecosystems provide to communities — sense of place, aesthetic views, and recreation, for example. 

The collaboration with Jaguar TCS Racing brought the partnership to the shortlist for Autosport’s inaugural Brand Partnership of the Year award in 2023. 

Writer’s Note: As a courtesy — I was an invited guest, after all — I shared a first draft of this article with Dow’s press agent. They’d like our readership to know more about their sustainability mission and practices. Here goes. 😊 

Dow has a track record of materials science innovation, top quartile process safety practices and nearly 30 years of sustainability goals guiding it, and is committed to excellence in compliance with regulatory requirements set by state and federal regulators. Dow’s operations are subject to extensive permitting regimes, and violations of those permit limits, due to process upsets or other unplanned events, if and when they occur, are almost entirely self-reported and addressed proactively in close collaboration with regulators. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to consider this unchecked. 

Over the past few years, Dow has also reflected on the rapidly changing climate and socio-economic conditions and completed a detailed evaluation of its strategies and commitments and determined a new Water & Nature strategy was needed as part of Dow’s broader climate protection strategy. Thus, Dow introduced its next-generation Water & Nature strategy in 2024, which is designed to help build water resilience for its sites and their surrounding communities, conserve habitat in key ecosystems, and positively impact nature throughout the value chain. The strategy and targets were developed with significant input from internal subject-matter experts and key leaders, NGOs and members of Dow’s Sustainability External Advisory Council (SEAC) and is consistent with existing and emerging disclosure frameworks such as CDP, GRI, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and Science-Based Targets for Nature (SBTN). 

Dow’s broader sustainability performance, efforts and disclosures can be reviewed in the 2023 INtersections report, which showcases the company’s continual advancement of its ambition to be the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company in the world. The report is available here – the majority of the environmental content can be found on pages 13-33, including the achievement of the Valuing Nature goal and Dow’s next-generation Water & Nature strategy on pages 20-23.