The Formula E team formerly know as ERT has had its future assured following its acquisition by a Los Angeles-based asset management company.
That takeover by the Forest Road Company was completed earlier this month and, as first reported by The Race, part of the deal is for the team - to be known as Kiro Race Co - to run season-old Porsche powertrains.
Kiro will race with a separately designated car, to be known as the Porsche 99X Electric WCG3, as opposed to the Porsche 99X Electric that the factory Porsche and customer Andretti teams will race with.
Capital for the acquisition has been provided by David Kaplan and Bennett Rosenthal, cofounders of Ares Management. Rosenthal also acts as the lead managing owner and a director of the Los Angeles FC soccer team. Kaplan will act as managing partner of the new-look team.
The Kiro team - so named because it means "bright light" in various languages - will retain its Silverstone base and race under an American licence.
It will continue to run Dan Ticktum, with Sergio Sette Camara likely to be confirmed as his team-mate later this month for a third consecutive season.
The press release issued by Kiro describes the Forest Road investors as having a 'proven track record in both media and renewable energy' that makes them 'well-positioned to drive significant value for the team and Formula E'.
Alex Hui, who will stay on as team principal, said: "Bringing a US-based asset management group like Forest Road into Formula E is a testament to the series' growth and our team's potential.
"Their investment allows us to build with confidence for the future and compete at the highest level. We are excited to work with them and Porsche Motorsport to achieve our goals."
A crucial takeover
The Race understands that an initial connection between members of the ERT team and the Forest Road Company/Ares was actually made by Ticktum earlier this year.
Meetings took place at the Portland E-Prix in June, which was followed by a long period of negotiation and then due diligence before a deal was struck last month.
That came after the official list of competitors was finalised by the FIA, meaning that The Race was able to share news of the Porsche side of the plans ahead of official confirmation of the takeover.
It had been evident for several seasons that the team, known as ERT since late 2023 until this week and before that NIO, needed additional investment to continue in Formula E. The team has finished in the lower reaches of the teams' standings in each of the last six seasons with only occasional spikes of form.
The second Rome race in April 2022 and Misano last season were two examples where ERT deployed extreme energy saving tactics to get results.
Using its own powertrain derived from major suppliers Helix (Integral Powertrain) and Xtrac, the former Chinese/Hong Kong-owned team also occasionally showed strong qualifying pace - with Sette Camara peaking with fourth-place starts at the Diriyah (race one) and Tokyo E-Prixs last season.
But those highs aside, the team was facing an uncertain future in 2025 with an upgraded powertrain from Helix and only modest investment in relation to most other teams around it in Formula E.
Attempts to attract a Chinese EV manufacturer earlier this year came to nothing, so the new owners are essentially a godsend to Alex Hui and his deputy Russell O'Hagan, who together front the team.
The major questions from a competitive point of view will be how much of a development upgrade the Gen3 Evo package has in terms of the powertrain cluster of components - motor, gearbox and inverters - and by extension how muc the other entries have gained.
The Porsche 99X Electric was probably the second most competitive all-round package last season - and only just, marginally behind Jaguar. This should mean that Kiro is able to at least stabilise itself until the Gen4 era begins in 2026.
But it likely really hinges on how much support it receives from Porsche. As it already has a close working relationship with Andretti, there is some scepticism about what level of resources Kiro will actually receive from Porsche.
Should it be a minimal amount, and should the team not be able to get on top of the hardware, then Kiro could easily find itself exactly where it started its quest from: the very back.
With the Lola-Yamaha Abt collective likely to be in a constant state of development and learning with its new package, and uncertainty surrounding the long-term future of the Mahindra operation, the likelihood is that the rear of the Formula E field will probably look very similar next season to how it did throughout 2024.
