The Paysafe Envision Formula E race car was unveiled Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, at The Block in Jacksonville. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 5, 2026 at 12:38 pm
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It can hit 60 mph in less than two seconds — the Paysafe Envision Formula E race car.
The new electric formula car is preparing to compete next season at 21 races from Austin, Texas, and Miami to Madrid and Tokyo. But it was unveiled Friday in Jacksonville, literally down the street from Paysafe’s North American headquarters at 5335 Gate Parkway.
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Paysafe, sponsor of Envision Racing, is a global online payment processing and digital commerce platform with 2,700 employees at five corporate offices around the world, from London to Lima, Peru.
Paysafe’s recently expanded Jacksonville office has 200 employees, with many on hand for the unveiling of their company-sponsored race car at The Block, an event space and food court less than a mile from their office.
Among the crowd was Bruce Lowthers, Paysafe CEO and executive director, who said the idea to sponsor one of these sleek electric race cars came from his senior staff.
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“For us, there was such an overlap between our consumer customer base and the demographics who love Formula E, and that’s what really made it a lot of sense for us — getting our brand out as we continue to drive our digital wallets across Europe and the U.S. and Latin America,” Lowthers said. “There’s not a lot of brands out there that kind of traverse the globe, and Formula E is an up-and-coming sport that we are very excited to be part of.”
For Zak O’Sullivan, one of two who will helm this Jaguar-built 200-mph car in Formula E’s 13th season, having sponsorship with a Jacksonville connection is just one thing to excite racing fans.
“It is something completely different, and it is also a very, very fast growing championship,” the 21-year-old driver said.
Formula E race cars are open-wheel single seaters that can hit speeds of up to 208 mph, built by global manufacturers like Jaguar, Porsche, Nissan, Mahindra, Citroen and Lola Cars.
The sport began with cars of around 200 horsepower, forcing teams to change cars halfway through a race back then. Now, after 13 years, cars have over 800 horsepower and can do a 45-minute race on one charge.
“During qualifying, we are the second-fastest cars other than Formula 1,” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan began competing in go-karting when he was 8 and has raced in Formula 4 and 3 open-wheel racers. Now he has a full-time contract to compete with Envision Racing in the 2026–27 season in high-speed electric race cars.
“To be honest, it’s completely unique because we are normally racing to energy demands, which means it is never a flat-out race,” O’Sullivan said. “That essentially leads to pack racing because we have multiple cars in front, you get a draft and you can be more efficient, so it’s a very kind of strategical race, of course being fast. It’s a kind of revolving chess game as you go through the race.”
Unlike race cars with gas engines, the strategy requires Formula E drivers to conserve energy by backing off and letting the electric motors turn into generators, he said. That race car engineering trickles down to the EV vehicles consumers drive.
“There is a big push for electric cars at the moment, so it is genuine R&D work that can be put in your road car in 10 years’ time,” he said. “Our cars are the most efficient electric powertrains. We use a Jaguar powertrain. The amount of regen we are able to achieve compared to a Tesla is 10 times more.”
The new season starts in December in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. Season 13 will have 21 rounds across 13 events, visiting Mexico City, Austin, Miami, São Paulo, Sanya, Monaco, Berlin, London, Zandvoort, Madrid, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Paysafe announced the race car sponsorship in August.
“We look at our customer base. We have a large number — about 10 million — who are focused on E Sports and video gaming,” Lowthers said. “And one of the cool things we are doing as part of this partnership is we are building a fan appreciation app for the Envision team. We are going to be able to bring our consumers to that party and really be able to cross promote Paysafe and Envision through the sport of Formula E.”
All races will be shown on Disney+, with an estimated 560 million TV viewers worldwide.
