Herrmann: Berlin ePrix “sends wrong signal”

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The new home for the Berlin ePrix 2016 quickly became a major item on the political agenda in the German capital. The district administrations of Friedrichshain and Mitte, both of which are home to the circuit, spoke out against the event in the city centre.

As announced by e-racing.net earlier today, there is a political front forming against the Berlin ePrix 2016. Borough major of Friedrichshain, Monika Herrmann, voiced her resentment of the event on her Social Media accounts and already called citizens into action to stop the ePrix. Talking to e-racing.net she said:

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”My main concern is the location – I personally think it is utterly wrong to host a car race in the densely populated city centre. Fine particles, noise, safety hazards and roadblocks are consequences of the event that we definitely do not need in the city centre. […] Therefore I do not think that the race is a cool event for Berlin but sends a completely wrong signal. […]”[/pullquote]

Furthermore Herrmann said that DIE GRÜNEN approve of the development to change from cars to bicycles in Berlin and that any car related traffic is looked upon very critically. The fact that no ordinary but all-electric cars are the focus of the FIA Formula E championship does not make a difference for her. “Our criticism remains. Especially when you keep in mind that most electric cars in daily use still run on electricity generated by coal and nuclear power”, she said in her statement.

What Herrmann fails to notice in her criticism is the enormous economically and public power the all-electric racing series offers. The event was attended by 21.000 people last year and proved itself to be a huge success. The sales of electric cars in Germany tripled in the past three years and the ePrix in the capital city brought the topic of e-mobility onto the agenda, showing that all-electric cars can in fact be “cool and desirable”. Hosting the Berlin ePrix in a more central location than last year may get the attention of a bigger number of people, thereby boosting the trend of e-mobility even more. Moreover, the issue of noise should not be of any concern. The majority of main roads in Berlin – of which Karl-Marx-Allee is one – produce traffic noise of 60 to 80 decibel. Formula E cars are within these parameters as the noise levels are approximately 80 decibel as well.

While the resistance of the borough majors might not be enough to prevent the ePrix from going ahead as planned, problems for the race might still arise in form of inadequate road surfaces. The tarmac in Lichtenberger Straße needs to be improved to make sure the underfloor or the Formula E cars will not be damaged. Should the federal state office not be able to put enough pressure on the district administration to improve the roads, there might be an unsolvable problem for the event.

e-racing.net is expecting an official statement from the federal state government concerning the political resistance and the pending official permission of the Berlin ePrix 2016 soon.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media and gruene-xhain.de

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