The H2 Racing Truck – which will take part in the Dakar in Saudi Arabia from 1 to 14 January 2022 – has been developed by a French company called Gaussin that specialises in zero-emission and autonomous commercial vehicles. It says that the H2 Racing Truck is “the most powerful 100% hydrogen and electric racing truck ever built”.
Leader in innovation
While Gaussin isn’t particularly well known in South Africa, the company – which designs, assembles and sells innovative products and services in the transport and logistics field – has more than 50,000 vehicles operating worldwide. Its know-how encompasses freight and passenger transport, autonomous technologies, as well as battery-electric and hydrogen propulsion.
The move to green
The launch of the innovative racing truck comes at a particularly appropriate time. The 26th Annual UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) has, of course, just taken place in Scotland. In his introduction to the conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted that the six years since the Paris Climate Agreement have been the six hottest years on record.
“Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. We face a stark choice: Either we stop it — or it stops us. It’s time to say: enough. Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves,” he warned.
The H2 Racing Truck partially addresses this concern – and it is a taste of things to come. According to Christophe Gaussin, CEO of Gaussin, the Dakar organisers have pledged to “green” the race. “On January 12 in Neom, Saudi Arabia, the Dakar organisation presented its ‘Dakar Future’ energy transition programme, which aims to make the Dakar 100% green by 2030. The climate outlook announced by scientists is indeed alarming. We are the first generation to feel the effects of climate change and the last generation to act,” he notes.
The “greening” of the Dakar isn’t the only environmental move by Saudi Arabia. On the eve of COP26, the Saudi Arabian government committed itself to carbon neutrality by 2060. For its part, the oil group Saudi Aramco has set itself the goal of reducing its net emissions to zero by 2050: “Saudi Aramco will achieve the ambition of being net zero from our operations by 2050,” Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco CEO recently told the Saudi Green Initiative summit.
Of course, while immensely admirable, the launch of the H2 Racing Truck is not just about saving the planet; it’s also about making a marketing statement. “By entering the first 100% hydrogen and electric truck in the Dakar, our company intends to demonstrate the reliability and performance of its hydrogen road range in a difficult environment. New technologies based on renewable energies are available and mature and should help accelerate the energy transition. For the Gaussin Group and its partners, this project, which has now become a reality, represents a technological achievement and the fruit of years of work and experience in zero-emission mobility,” says Gaussin.
Super-fast development process
It took a team of Gaussin engineers a mere year to develop the H2 Racing Truck. The vehicle features two 300 kW e-motors, a 380 kW fuel cell and an 82 kWh battery. It has an 80-kg hydrogen tank and a high-performance cooling system. Its lightweight chassis was specifically designed for the performance and integration of the hydrogen-electric system. In line with Dakar rules, its top speed is limited to 140 km/h, and the truck will have a range of 250 km when being driven in typical racing conditions. It will take a mere 20 minutes to refuel the truck.
First of many new hydrogen trucks
The French company intends to launch a range of hydrogen-powered commercial trucks next year, and the data and information collected during the Dakar Rally will be used to further develop these vehicles. As was the case with the racing truck, the vehicles will be designed by Pininfarina. “We made sure the design faithfully represents the group's values and roots: reliability, performance and robustness, ‘Be faster… Safer & Cleaner’. This defines Gaussin’s new signature which is shared across all the vehicles in the range,” comments Pininfarina Chief Creative Officer, Kevin Rice.
Silvio Pietro Angori, Pininfarina CEO, expressed his enthusiasm at the reveal of the racing truck. “We are thrilled to see the first-born truck running, as a result of the extraordinary collaboration with Gaussin. We have leveraged our long experience in designing sustainable and intelligent mobility combined with our ability to create unique user experiences to shape the full Gaussin range of zero-emission road trucks. We are sure that this new range of ecological, smart and uniquely styled trucks will write a new chapter in the history of zero-emission mobility,” he says.
The zero-emission road trucks will be available in four models: truck tractor, autonomous vehicle, distribution truck and construction truck.
Let’s hope that we see them on South Africa’s roads one day…
