Lucid has unveiled an electric motor for Formula E.

Lucid may be best known for its luxury electric sedan, the Air, but the California company started out in 2007 as a supplier of EV technology to major OEMs under the name Atieva.

Despite its foray into car production, Lucid has not abandoned its supply business and on Wednesday announced one of its latest deals, the supply of front motor generators to the Formula E World Championship.

Lucid has supplied battery packs to Formula E before.

Lucid calls the motor-generator an electric drive unit because it also serves as the inverter, differential, and transmission. This unit is used in Formula E's Gen3 race cars, which began racing this year; Gen3 is common to all teams, but specific parameters can be developed by each team.

When the Gen3 car was unveiled last April, Formula E organizers said the car's motor-generator could convert about 95% of the battery's electrical energy into motion. Compare this to a commercial internal combustion engine, which at best uses about 40% of the energy stored as fuel for motion.

The electric drive unit weighs only 70.5 pounds but produces up to 469 horsepower, or about 6.6 horsepower per pound of weight. The electric drive unit's motor can rev to 19,500 rpm, and Lucid says the continuous-wave windings and proprietary cooling system are identical to those used in the Air sedan.

"This new motorsport drive unit is based directly on the groundbreaking powertrain technology developed in-house by Lucid and demonstrated in every Lucid Air," said Peter Rawlinson, Lucid CEO and CTO, in a statement.

Rawlinson also said that lessons learned in motorsports, including Formula E, may help Lucid's future road cars.