DS Autombolies and Techeetah revealed their season five challenger and a brand new factory to start the two companies partnership in Formula E.

Reigning formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne will continue to drive alongside Andre Lotterer for the 2018/2019 season, with James Rossiter and Guan Yu Zhou continuing as development drivers.

“It is with great pleasure that we have now officially begun our partnership with DS and embarked on our first year as DS Techeetah,” said team principal Mark Preston.

“We’re also delighted to announce that Jean-Eric Vergne and his outstanding team-mate from season four, Andre Lotterer will both continue with the team this season.

“With Jean-Eric and Andre as our drivers and James Rossiter and Zhou Guan Yu as our development drivers this year, we believe that we have an incredibly strong driver line-up and we are incredibly excited to go racing.”

With Techeetah becoming the main factory team of DS, Techeetah now has 15 days of private testing on top of the official preseason tests that take place later this month.

Last season, Techeetah was a customer of Renault and could only conduct three days of testing, and they still won the drivers’ championship and were only two points away from winning the teams’ championship. This has given Vergne confidence that he can have a strong attempt at defending his title.

“I’m incredibly happy to continue another year with the team,” said Vergne.

“After winning the 2017/2018 drivers’ title and now with the addition of DS this season, we are even stronger, and it should be a great year.

“It is a very exciting time for the championship with the Gen2 car entering the all-electric street racing championship and we can expect is a new level of competition and excitement.”