Brands Hatch is set to host the London E-Prix from the 2026-27 season, with the historic Kent circuit replacing the ExCeL centre as the home of British Formula E.

The switch is a straightforward one of size. The ExCeL’s tight indoor-outdoor layout simply cannot accommodate Formula E’s bigger and faster Gen4 machine, so the championship has gone looking for room to breathe, and found it in the rolling Kentish countryside.

Brands Hatch is not the only new name on the schedule. Zandvoort in the Netherlands and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin also join, taking the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to a record 21 races across 13 cities.

The move had been widely expected. The ExCeL’s narrow course, which weaves both inside and outside the exhibition hall, was already proving a squeeze for the Gen3 Evo car, and race organisers ruled out a Gen4 event there altogether.

It is not hard to see why. The new car produces 805bhp in qualifying trim, a 50 per cent jump over its predecessor, and it is considerably larger and heavier. Brands Hatch, with its sweeping gradients and far greater run-off, is a far better fit for a car of that pace and bulk.

Formula E chief executive Jeff Dodds described Brands Hatch as “one of the best circuits in the world”, and confirmed a multi-year agreement with circuit operator MSV. “I don’t influence the calendar too much, but Brands Hatch was my local circuit growing up,” he told Motorsport.com.

The 2026-27 season opens under the lights in Jeddah on 18 and 19 December 2026 and closes in Tokyo in July 2027. Eight venues will stage double-headers, among them Brands Hatch on 29 and 30 May 2027 and Zandvoort on 18 and 19 June 2027.

Those double-header weekends also usher in a new sporting format. One race will be the traditional E-Prix, complete with full battery-management strategy. The second will be a shorter “E-Prix Unleashed” sprint, in which drivers are free to push the Gen4 cars to the limit without nursing energy, a format expected to suit the returning Gen4 machinery and the wide-open Brands Hatch layout.

Austin, meanwhile, had been in talks with the series for several years. It now joins Miami as the second American round. Dodds argued that more racing in the United States helps “raise the awareness of other styles of racing” beyond NASCAR and IndyCar.

There is an environmental logic to the wider shape of the calendar, too. Formula E has clustered its races by continent to cut freight mileage and emissions. The Americas leg runs from January to March, Europe follows from May to June, and Asia closes the season in July.

Dodds is bullish about where the Gen4 car leaves Formula E in the broader motorsport picture. “Gen4 gets us right on the heels of F1,” he said. “And Gen5 is probably faster.”

Brands Hatch’s return to top-flight single-seater racing has been a long time coming, and it gives the London E-Prix a proper, permanent racing circuit for the first time. For a championship keen to prove it belongs alongside Formula 1, swapping a car park for one of Britain’s most loved tracks looks like a statement of intent. As The Race pointed out, the trio of new venues marks one of the most significant calendar shake-ups in the series’ history.