With the renaissance of electric vehicles during the early 21st century, notable electric-only racing series have been developed, for both cars and motorcycles, including for example, the FIA Formula E World Championship.

La Jamais Contente (English: The Never Satisfied) was the first road vehicle to go over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph).

The vehicle established the land speed record on April 29 or May 1, 1899 at Achères, Yvelines near Paris, France.

The vehicle had two direct drive Postel-Vinay 25 kW motors, running at 200 V drawing 124 Amperes each[1][2] for about 68 hp, and was equipped with Michelin tires.

[3] However, as combustion powertrains developed, they offered a superior range to electrics and had a much lower price after the Ford Model T was invented in 1908.

In 1912 the electric starter motor was invented by Charles Kettering leading to easier and faster starting of internal combustion powertrains, and removing what had been perceived as one of their main drawbacks (having to use a hand crank).

It is believed to be the first time that an electric vehicle has beaten cars powered by combustion engines in any accredited motorsport competition.

[14] In January 2017, a pure electric car participated in the Paris-Dakar Rally and completed the entire route of 9,000 km (5,600 mi) through Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.

[16] The race is self sanctioned and has taken place since 1916, making it the second oldest motorsport event in the Western Hemisphere behind the Indianapolis 500.

[19] The winning driver Rhys Millen said in an interview that the vehicle had lost half its tractive power (due to heat) from around the halfway point.

[20] Both the two above teams and drivers raced again in 2016, with evolutions of the vehicles, and were joined by a prototype '4-motor EV' from Acura based on the 2016 NSX production car, with heavy modifications to all-electric drive.

The Acura, driven by Tetsuya Yamano, achieved a remarkable time for its first outing, finishing in 9:06:015 minutes, and third place overall.

Dumas' team also won in an earlier version of the same vehicle in 2014 with a time of 9:05:801 minutes, thus improving by some 14 seconds over 2 years technological evolution.

The previous track record stood at 8:13.878 minutes, driven by Sébastien Loeb in the 2013 Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak.

"[21] The inaugural 2010 TT Zero race was won by Mark Miller riding a MotoCzysz E1pc motor-cycle in 23 minutes and 22.89 seconds at an average race speed of 96.820 mph for 1 lap (37.733 miles) of the Mountain Course and the first United States winner since Dave Roper won the 1984 Historic TT riding a 500cc Matchless.

The TT Zero race replaced the TTXGP franchise with the simplification of the regulations[22] and the emphasis on electric powered motor-cycles.

Since joining the event in 2012, and following a brace of runner-up finishes in 2012/2013, the Japanese team Mugen won the TT Zero race for the first time in 2014, and were victors in the race for 6 consecutive years through to 2019, setting 4 new lap records, and becoming the first electric motorcycle to lap the Snaefell Course at an average speed in excess of 120 mph (190 km/h) in the process.

Comparing the experience of the different powertrains, Lee Johnston said as he climbed off his electric bike in the 2015 practice sessions: "That was just mint.

Nissan provided an engine and received naming rights on the Garage 56 entry at the 2012 Le Mans race, as well as and other 2012 American Le Mans Series races The ZEOD RC had a hybrid electric drivetrain with lithium ion battery packs in a chassis similar in design to the DeltaWing.

However it managed to achieve its goals of reaching a speed above 300 km/h and completing a lap in Le Mans using electric power only.

In January 2017, a pure electric car participated in the Paris-Dakar Rally and completed the entire route of 9000 km through Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.

The top 3 drivers from NXT Gen Cup were offered a test in the STCC prototype car in advance of the season.

In 2024 four of the six European races were planned to be held at FIA Formula E weekends, but those were later cancelled due to "unexpected constraints".

[49] The Andros Trophy, a French ice racing series, began experimenting with electric cars in 2007.

The World Solar Challenge is a biennial solar-powered car race which covers 3,021 km (1,877 mi) through the Australian Outback, from Darwin, Northern Territory to Adelaide, South Australia.

The series use a sealed racing kit provided by the Moto Engineering Foundation and TechnoPark MotorLand,[52][53] with same standards for all teams and capability of reaching 200 km/h (120 mph).

The Greenpower Education Trust is a charitable organization, whose objective is to inspire more young people to become engineers by presenting the engineering industry as an interesting and relevant career choice which could help to solve problems relating to the personal, social and emotional development (known in Britain as PSED) of individuals and societies.

Electric powertrains have advantages over combustion engines in power delivery and vehicle dynamics (especially on motorbikes), but are heavy and still have range disadvantages in longer races (note that combustion engine vehicle often have to refill energy supply also, e.g. Isle of Man TT bikes refill every two laps).