World Champion Jenson Button’s JBXE Racing and Lotus Engineering have joined forces and formed a technical partnership for the new electric off-road series, Extreme E.

The British engineering consultancy, part of Group Lotus, brings its reputation for innovation to JBXE and Extreme E , supporting the series’ parallel goals of promoting electrification and highlighting the importance of sustainable energy solutions.

JBXE Racing founder Button co-driving with Scandinavian Touring Car race-winner Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, are preparing to compete in the 2021 Extreme E Championship opener later this week – the Desert X Prix, set for April 3-4 in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

“Lotus is a great British brand that is inextricably linked to motorsport, so we are delighted to welcome Lotus Engineering to JBXE,” said Button. “Extreme E is a unique and exciting formula, full of ‘world firsts’ and challenges. We are very excited about our new technical partnership and can’t wait to show what we can do in the first race this weekend.”

“We are on the cusp of an exciting new era of electrified motorsport,” added Lotus Cars managing director Matt Windle, “and we’re delighted to support the JBXE team as technical partner. The complex technicalities of EV racing present a fascinating challenge, and using what we have learned from more than a decade of electrifying sports cars – most recently with the Lotus Evija hypercar – we can bring valuable knowledge to the team.”