formula E team builds first racing car made entirely of discarded electronics, vapes & phones

Recover-e car recycles circuit boards, plugs, vapes and iphones

Formula E team Envision Racing unveiled its full-size, drivable Formula E Gen3 ‘Recover-E’ car made entirely out of electronic waste such as vapes, iPhones, and patched-up circuit boards at the ExCeL in London on the eve of the capital’s e-prix race on July 29th, 2023. British artist and designer Liam Hopkins stepped in and collaborated with Envision Racing to recycle donated electronic products by the UK tech business Music Magpie into a fully functional and drivable racing car. Hopkins says that these days, people choose to discard and replace electronics instead of repairing and recycling them, leading to a global electronic-waste crisis. ‘Through design and creativity, we want to show the issue of e-waste and its potential to accelerate the creation of a circular economy,’ he adds.

images by Envision Racing

first racing car made entirely of discarded electronics

Envision Racing runs the campaign ‘Race against Climate Change’ which aims to accelerate the transition to clean, secure, and affordable renewable energy and speed up the mass adoption of electronic mobility. It says that the annual electronic waste production – which includes disposable vapes, mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players, plugs, and batteries – might reach 75 million tonnes by 2030, with the UK generating the 2nd largest amount of e-waste as a country in 2022. Recover-E car serves as one of the tangible repurposing examples the company has generated to contribute to the reduction of the growing electronic waste.

the body is made up of circuit boards

Alongside the first racing car made entirely of discarded electronics, Envision Racing launched the Recover-E Waste to Race competition to encourage young people and fans around the world to create their own e-waste car made out of recycled electronic materials. They can even take inspiration from the Recover-E Car where color-coded layers of iPhones and vapes are placed on the front bumper of the first racing car made entirely of discarded electronics.

Their bright hues attract attention, but even more so do the flattened and thoroughly put circuit boards that surround the body of the racing car. Even the LED lights are repurposed and laced around the Recover-E car. The back covers and cases of phones lend the racing car a gray-to-black shade, a contrast to the rainbow splash at the front and the greenscape around the body.

Envision Racing builds first racing car made entirely of discarded electronics, vapes and iPhones

Envision Racing’s Managing Director and CTO Sylvain Filippi says that along with testing new battery technology for cars, the company is on a mission to reduce e-waste by recycling the metals, minerals, and materials in old laptops, mobile phones, and other electrical devices into fully functional objects and vehicles like the Recover-E car.

‘If the millions upon millions of Lithium batteries that are found in vapes and other products are recycled, it will dramatically reduce both the need for rare earth mineral mining and the large energy needed to create the batteries from scratch,’ he says. ‘We want to increase awareness of e-waste and help build a ‘circular economy’ where electrical products are reused or recycled, not thrown away.’

the racing car was unveiled at the ExCeL in London on the eve of the capital’s e-prix race