Dakar 2022 will be taking place in Saudi Arabia January 2-14 with an introductory short rally on day one followed by 12 grueling long-distance races with a total distance close to 5,000 mi. This year there might be good reason to watch the rally as there will be a hydrogen truck entry by Gaussin with sponsorship by Aramco.
Gaussin, a French manufacturer of zero emissions vehicles for the transport and logistics sector, has prepared a unique entry into the Dakar race with its class 8 hydrogen truck designed by Pininfarina. Gaussin’s H2 Racing Truck will run as an experimental new energy vehicle and the only truck in the alternative energy category for the Dakar. Gaussin is a 140-year-old public company led by Christophe Gaussin, a fifth-generation member of the family that originally founded the company. The company has evolved from producing steel for construction, to containers and now to manufacturing heavy duty vehicles. In 2012, the company switched to battery electric vehicles becoming the largest provider of yard hustlers for the logistics segment in Europe. And as the technology has matured, Gaussin’s latest technology innovations are focused on integrating hydrogen into its vehicle designs and developing a flexible power architecture that can accommodate both electric and hydrogen powered applications. This, in turn, will better meet customer needs for emissions-free transport. Announced in April 2021, this design approach, developed in partnership with Magna International, resulted in an ultra-light modular skateboard chassis enveloped around the integrated hydrogen and electric powertrain.
“We are always exploring new ideas and technologies that will allow us to further enhance our platform offerings across new segments, such as the Road Truck Skateboard for the next generation road trucks and tractors for the on-road segment,” said Gary Patterson, Executive Vice President for Gaussin North America.
Gaussin considers itself an enabler, trailblazer, and innovator in clean transportation and the best way to show this energy and resolve would be to bring hydrogen technology to the market with a bang. Well, building and entering a hydrogen truck for Dakar rally will do that. Gaussin believes that the time to showcase heavy duty hydrogen is already here. The idea to build a competition truck for Dakar was first formulated in January 2021 as the company was familiar with the races through prior sponsorships. A team of talented Gaussin engineers prepared the truck in the short span of a year. The development of the truck was accelerated through adoption of the competition modified skateboard chassis developed in parallel. To compete among the “big boys” at Dakar, H2 Racing Truck incorporates an impressive powertrain driven by two e-motors of 300 kW each, 380 kW of fuel cells in combination with 82 kWh of batteries. All this power is tamed by the competition governed speed of 140 km/h or 87 mi/h, which is plenty in sandy dunes.
Entering Dakar is not a small feat, requiring one more problem to solve, which is also a challenge for the upcoming hydrogen transportation overall, obtaining hydrogen to fuel the truck. Unlike electric trucks, hydrogen trucks can be refueled “relatively fast” if the right technology is available. Gaussin has assembled an ecosystem of strategic partners to address these challenges. For the rally, Aramco is the exclusive sponsor for Gaussin’s truck and team. This sponsorship is part of a broader partnership with the longer term goal to establish a modern manufacturing facility with Aramco for hydrogen-powered vehicles in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As Christophe Gaussin noted, “…the country shares with Gaussin an ambitious determination to decarbonize mobility and to address global warming. This is why we are very proud to announce this collaboration with Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies. This collaboration is going to help Gaussin compete in the Dakar Rally with the world’s first hydrogen-powered race truck.”
The truck is equipped with tanks carrying 80 kg of hydrogen at 350 bar. In racing conditions this will afford about 250 km. This will require a refueling at Gaussin mobile hydrogen stations along the special stages allotted for the alternative energy category. The success of Gaussin’s hydrogen truck team in the Dakar Rally would mean a lot to the hydrogen world.
