īuemi said the increase in competition for the championship's third season meant he was not thinking about the title but on winning as many races as possible. Defending drivers' champion Sébastien Buemi stayed at e.Dams-Renault after his title-winning campaign, and was again joined by Nico Prost.
The final change involved two-time Macau Grand Prix winner and reigning European Formula Three champion Felix Rosenqvist joining the series with Mahindra, partnering Nick Heidfeld.
Defending FIA GT World Cup champion Maro Engel was hired by Venturi to replace World Endurance Championship driver Mike Conway, while Virgin employed three-time consecutive World Touring Car champion José María López to partner Formula E race winner Sam Bird. Team Aguri was purchased by Chinese sports development and management firm SECA in mid-2016 and was renamed Techeetah with Jean-Éric Vergne and Ma Qinghua announced as the team's drivers. One of the main changes involved the début appearance of Jaguar in the sport with the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix champion Adam Carroll and the 2012 GP3 Series title winner Mitch Evans competing for the team. Heading into the new season, some teams opted to keep the same line-up as they had in the previous season however, some teams changed drivers.
A total of ten squads entering two drivers each competed in the event. It was the first of 12 single-seater electric car races of the season, and was held at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit on 9 October 2016. The event was later confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016–17 schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. In October 2015 the Hong Kong ePrix was announced by the CEO and founder of Formula E Alejandro Agag in a press conference at the Central Harbour Front Event Space, pending further review from the FIA. It was intended for inclusion in the 2014–15 season schedule but negotiations and approval from local authorities and motorsport's international governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), went longer than anticipated. The idea for a race in Hong Kong was first raised in 2013 when a design team visited the city. Mahindra Racing were nine points ahead of the fifth-placed NextEV with eleven races left in the season. e.Dams-Renault held a 19-point advantage in the Teams' Championship over joint second-placed Audi Sport ABT and Andretti. Buemi's teammate Nico Prost was fourth on 12 points and António Félix da Costa was fifth with ten points. The result gave the Buemi of the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of di Grassi and ten in front of Heidfeld. It was Buemi's first victory of the season and the seventh of his career. There were three lead changes among four different drivers during the course of the race. Di Grassi was no more than two seconds behind Buemi but was unable to get close enough to challenge him because he had to conserve electrical energy and Buemi remained the leader for the rest of the race to win. He had technical problems with his second car and Buemi moved into the lead. Some drivers elected to make pit stops to switch to their second cars with Bird choosing to remain on the circuit until his own stop eight laps later. He pulled away from the rest of the field and led until he collided with the barrier after swerving to avoid José María López's crashed car on the 17th lap allowing Sam Bird to take the lead. won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying. Audi Sport ABT's Lucas di Grassi finished second and Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld was third. The 45-lap race was won by e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi who started from seventh place. It was the first race of the 2016–17 Formula E Championship and the first edition of the event. The 2016 Hong Kong ePrix (formally the 2016 FIA Formula E HKT Hong Kong ePrix for sponsorship purposes) was a Formula E electric motor race held at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit in Hong Kong before a crowd of 30,000 people on 9 October 2016.