What does Qualcomm (QCOM 1.15%) have to do with electric vehicles -- specifically, open-wheeled race cars powered exclusively by electricity?

That's just what Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore asked Qualcomm president Derek Aberle at the first public demonstration of Formula E's new fully electric race car. The Spark-Renault SRT_01E debuted at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas during CES. Qualcomm is an "official founding technology partner" of the FIA Formula E Championship.

In this video, Aberle explains that Qualcomm is involved in the development of wireless charging technology, as well as mobile solutions that will enhance communications during racing events.

A full transcript follows the video.

Derek Aberle: We have a number of initiatives under way at Qualcomm that are very focused at the automotive industry. We really look at electric vehicles as one of the key elements of the future for vehicles, generally.

Both our wireless-charging technology that we've been developing for a number of years, we think will be a very cool showcase for the electric-vehicle circuit, as well as a number of our mobile technologies that eventually will be embedded into these vehicles to bring information and data off the vehicles as they race, as well as allowing fans to interact with the drivers and the race series, while it's happening.