It may look like it belongs on the F1 track – but that’s not a conventional motor under the bonnet.

The all-electric racing car to be used by drivers in the Formula E Championship has been test driven for the first time.

The Spark-Renault SRT-01E completed 40 laps over the course of two days at La Ferte Gaucher track in France, with test driver and former F1 racer Lucas di Grassi at the wheel.

The car wasn’t running at full throttle, as it was fitted with a 50kW battery for the test. The final car will be four times more powerful, producing 200kW – the equivalent of 270bhp.

Lucas Di Grassi said: “I can assure all the drivers will have a lot of fun with this car – even with just a quarter of the power it has quite a lot of grip and the electric motor produces huge torque.”

Frederic Vasseur, President of Spark Racing Technology said: “Everything went very well and it was a very positive maiden run for the Spark-Renault SRT-01E. The car ran for around 40 laps with no issues straight out of the box, which looks good for the overall reliability.”

He added: “The next test is planned for the coming weeks where we want to increase the mileage on the car, working our way up to a full race simulation.”

A recent report from EY claimed the Formula E Championship could help the car industry flog an extra 77 million vehicles.