A new year is often ushered in with a series of well-meaning but rarely-kept resolutions. Whatever yours are – making friends with your belt again, giving up smoking (the rear tyres), using the gym more than once before summer – they probably don’t quite measure up to those of Formula E. This is the year that the electric racing series will be developing its autonomous vehicle category – and getting a whole lot more electric.

Hang on – more electric?

More electric than a grid full of electric racing cars? Yep.

What you may have missed in all the hubbub that greeted the recent Roborace revelations (driverless car racing, coming sometime in the 2016-17 season) is Formula E’s intention to use electric trucks and buses to green its paddock activities.

Never fear – not only did we spot the news, we got rather excited by it (geeks that we are) and spent our festive period digging for more details.

Tell us more, then…

A British automotive start-up called Charge is working on “an innovative electric vehicle modular platform for commercial vehicle applications,” according to a company spokesperson. (We hope the tech will be slightly more innovative than the name.)

For Formula E, that means a small truck and a bus to ferry racing cars, equipment and people around the paddock. (We’ve dubbed these HGeVs for “heavy goods electric vehicles”. You saw it here first.)

Charge is based in Oxfordshire and reportedly already has more than 50 automotive and software engineers on the books. According to the spokesperson, the company’s goal is “to supply technology to existing truck and bus manufacturers,” while providing vehicle design and development in the short-term to speed the route to market.

The company represents the first big spend by Kinetik, a London-headquartered investment firm set up in 2015 by a chap called Denis Sverdlov with a headline fund of $500million. That’ll buy a few batteries.

The former engineering graduate turned businessman headed up a smartphone company in Russia before working directly for the Russian government, pushing through telecoms and broadband programmes. His Kinetik firm is also the major partner in Formula E’s Roborace project.

Sverdlov tells us that he is “passionate about the urgent need to bring new emissions-free technology to the truck and bus sector” and believes that “Formula E and Roborace events are a great shop window for developing electric technology for the automotive industry as a whole.”

What’s under the bonnet?

“The general specification for the Charge truck is a six tonne gross vehicle weight with at least a three tonne payload, although the exact configuration of frame length and on-board equipment will differ,” says Sverdlov. “The trucks, along with related equipment, will be used for the delivery of race cars to the track, for evacuation in the event of accidents or emergency recovery and for the post-race drivers’ parade.”

A prototype truck is already being track tested in the UK. Exact details about the powertrain tech, number of units on order and costs remain under wraps for now.

It’s worth noting that “electric” doesn’t necessarily mean completely battery-powered. “For commercial transportation, electric-only vehicles are not enough,” Sverdlov told the FT recently. “These vehicles need to work all the time. For the next 15 to 20 years, it will be a range-extended standard.”

“At the moment, we have a range extender,” he clarifies. “Ultimately, when we get into Formula E, the range extender will be removed.”

A minibus will be putting in an appearance, too. “The transit bus will be a six metre long, low-floor 12 seater,” Sverdlov continues. “Electric transit buses will transport visitors around the eVillage and its facilities.”

Applications sought for round-the-world trucking adventures?

No. Sorry.

“Logistics of the Charge support vehicles have yet to be worked out with location and frequency of races in mind,” says Sverdlov. “In the final configuration, it will probably make sense for Charge to keep the vehicles in its target-market locations, such as the EU, USA and China, and have vehicles that will follow the race to other locations.”

So keep your globe-trotting electric trucking radio handles to yourself. For now.

What’s the big deal?

Cities all over the world are busy working out how to improve quality of life for residents. A major issue is how to keep freight rolling (vital for preserving the health of regional and national economies) while cutting congestion on the roads and cleaning up air quality.

Removing big, belchy lorries from crowded urban areas is one popular idea that could help, but freight still needs to be ferried in and out. There are lots of solutions floating around, including out-of-town distribution centres where lorries can stop and from which “final mile” deliveries can be made using smaller vehicles – bicycles, drones, electric vans and so on.

If Formula E can power its paddock activities using electric vehicles, with operational and race vehicles all charged by the on-site, virtually emissions-free Aquafuel generators, it will be a big step towards showcasing a complete carbon-neutral modern urban environment that doesn’t require using vehicles from the Flintstones.

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks and months for more details on the low emissions trucks and buses headed for Formula E.