Secrets and impenetrable stories are rare in Formula E. The rumour mill usually flows freely and nothing remains too cloak-and-dagger in the paddock for long.
But when it comes to the still-unresolved question of whether Mahindra or Penske will be their own technical suppliers and be registered Gen4 manufacturers, there is a dearth of solid information.
The Gen4 era is effectively already here for Formula E teams. In the goods-in departments of Nissan, Jaguar, Porsche, Lola-Yamaha and Stellantis, the Gen4 cars and their key components have long since arrived. The builds are well advanced and a group test is scheduled for six weeks' time in Spain - with one having already taken place.
But well prior to that has been the research and design work which most manufacturers will have started at the end of 2024, if not before. The advancement of the motors, inverters, gearboxes and other parts has been mostly completed. The development now begins on-track and in approximately 13 months' time they will be on the grid and ready to start Formula E's fastest and most exciting era.
Mahindra (a manufacturer in its own right since the second season, albeit with a variety of key partners) and Penske (both a customer and its own collective manufacturer before), are generating a great deal of interest in what their specific make-ups will be between 2026 and 2030.
At this stage, neither's plans are believed to be completely clear, but each certainly has its own powertrain plan that may or may not be activated quickly.
For each, it appears that some financial questions are the key hurdles right now, while IP complexities for a would-be external manufacturer supply is also a probable stumbling block for any likely desired two-year agreements. The clock is unending and audibly ticking now.
The difficulties now, for both Mahindra and Penske, would be to source a two-season Gen4 agreement. From the manufacturer supplier side, this is a risk because Penske especially would then be free to use aspects of the learnings for its own potential powertrain to be utilised for the final two seasons of Gen4.
While Mahindra has been established as a registered manufacturer in its own right since season two, Penske has run a variety of models, notably with DS since 2023. That looks as if it is about to change for the 2026-27 season for the Jay Penske-led entity, while Mahindra seems set now to continue as its own manufacturer for Gen4.
Why does Penske want to be a manufacturer again?
Penske's destiny changed significantly in the autumn of 2023 when former Jaguar technical leader Phil Charles accepted an offer from Jay Penske to become its technical leader, which was dressed up as a notional 'deputy team principal' moniker.
In reality, Charles runs the team top to bottom and back again, day-to-day, also having a key remit to form a Gen4 structure.
Renowned for his unerring drive and technical foresight, Charles is the consummate racer and one who would love to build Penske's own powertrain and take on the manufacturers, cultivating a giant-killer machine that would also resonate very nicely with Jay Penske.
The Race can reveal that the Penske-assembled powertrain has had several months of development work and is on target to be raced in Gen4, although Penske is yet to officially and formally register itself as a manufacturer with the FIA.
It was clearly not at the combined test involving the manufacturer Gen4 development cars last week and may not make the next one in the spring either.
Yet, Penske's capability to go it alone has been front and centre of its plans to a great extent for the past 18 months. That is mostly why a new facility in Witney, UK, called Penske Powertrain Laboratories, sprung up quickly in the spring/summer of 2024.
The team now does the most of its research and development from there, including its sim sessions on an advanced Ansible Motion Delta S3 driver-in-loop simulator that the likes of the incumbent Maximilian Guenther and former driver Jean-Eric Vergne have privately raved about.
Penske owns the Formula E entrant licence and its partnership with DS Automobiles, which has existed since the end of 2022, has borne some fruit with three E-Prix wins. But it hasn't come close to repeating the success that DS enjoyed with Techeetah in the Gen2 era of Formula E.
The present Penske and DS deal will come to an end in August 2026 at the cessation of the Gen3 era.
That the two will part has felt likely for a while, so Penske has seemingly now put itself in to a position where it can either continue as a customer partnership model or go it alone as its own registered manufacturer.
Who would pay for it?
The Race understands that a manufacturer partnership on a Penske powertrain is a desired option and that discussions have taken place but the project is not completely reliant on such a scenario playing out.
Jay Penske has been a loyal and unwaveringly supportive figure when it comes to Formula E. His commitment to it is all-in, much like Charles's. But it is in fact a fraction of his overall interests in the business world, as the Penske Media Corporation takes the vast majority of his professional time.
Look at the DS Penske E-TENSE FE25s of Maximilian Guenther and Jean-Eric Vergne last season and you will see multiple PMC-owned businesses adorning the bodywork: Robb Report, Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Golden Globes (part-owned with Eldridge Industries), Variety magazine and Sportico.
This year there have been reported cutbacks in some areas of PMC, with the legendary Rolling Stone magazine seemingly reducing its headcount or at least restrategising its staffing line-ups.
Then there is what is being labelled a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google, which again has recently been reported. This includes an assertion that Google is using its search monopoly to oblige publications to surrender content. This is claimed to be not only for search engine results, but in order for Google to scrape content for its AI Overviews contextual summaries.
So, with a lot going on in his day-to-day business, Penske will be relying on Charles perhaps even when it comes to the Gen4 programme, which will have to be crystalised soon.
As well as talks with a prospective new manufacturer, what is also believed is that approaches have been made to both Mahindra and Lola too recently.
With Nissan said to be focused on Andretti, Envision likely to re-engage with Jaguar, and Porsche's relationship with Cupra Kiro feeling increasingly embedded (alongside its shock decision to set up a new factory team), the options for a customer deal for Penske feel reduced.
That may have renewed Charles's bullish commitment to Penske providing for itself in Gen4, and with his experience in assembling the team and technical framework for Jaguar's successful 2024 title triumphs there is clear precedence there.
Porsche was also said to be a possible customer option for Penske but that won't be for a likely preferred (on Penske's side anyway) two-year deal, in light of the manufacturer's two-pronged factory approach from the 2026-27 season onwards - even if that is a plan that will encompass one customer entity too.
That could mean, if Penske is unable to see through its own plans, and parks its powertrain until Gen5 - a scenario which Charles will no doubt be adamant will not happen - a possible interim solution with either Mahindra or Lola.
The Porsche-Penske deal that collapsed
History isn't kind to any thoughts of a Jay Penske-Porsche relationship happening for Gen4, either.
In 2017, the two were about to partner up so Porsche could embed its engineers into Formula E and get practical experience in the final Gen1 season before its entry the year after. But it fell apart just as it was about to begin at the 2017 Hong Kong E-Prix, when Neel Jani was left without adequate engineering staff to effectively run his car.
Initial word was that a financial dispute meant the plans broke down at a late stage and any chance of a more-rooted relationship for the Gen2 era of Formula E was completely over.
But The Race has learned that the actual situation was a little more complex, with a dispute over software between the two parties believed to have caused the fracture which saw the plans stall before they had really started.
Porsche's wish for a satellite team to double the number of cars generating data included a deal for Jani to race for Penske, which he briefly did at that year's Hong Kong E-Prix.
Porsche is understood to have adapted its 919 Hybrid World Endurance Championship energy management software by redacting some elements and then took it to Valencia for the pre-season test with some engineers in attendance too.
That test went well but the relationship fell apart on the eve of the season-opening races when a dispute over the sharing of the source code of Porsche's software played out, meaning that the unfortunate Jani was left with little racing experience ahead of his and Porsche's entry 12 months later.
