Renault's Formula E racer makes public debut

The car was in the hands of Brazilian racing driver Lucas di Grassi who drove along the Las Vegas Strip before moving on to the Mandalay Bay hotel in the centre of the city.

Renault says the demonstration run was confirmation that the visionary idea of fully-electric single-seater race cars is today very much a reality to which the French carmaker, as a technical partner, has made a significant contribution.

Renault has applied its winning record in motor racing and the lead it enjoys in the world of electric vehicles to the all-electric racer, but whether the Formula E championship that debuts this year will attract fans remains to be seen.

Said Renault Sport Technologies CEO Patrice Ratti: "Everybody at Renault is very proud that we were able to show the 100% electric Spark-Renault race car in driving conditions for a very tech-savvy crowd in Las Vegas.

"The work that has been done by all technical partners over the last few months has been fantastic and the car lives up to Renault's high competition standards.

"We are very happy about the result so far and our engineers will keep working with Spark, Dallara, McLaren, Williams and Michelin to further improve the Spark-Renault SRT/01E so that all teams can compete with an amazing 100% electric race car when the championship begins."