2 days Ago
Extreme E has unveiled the new hydrogen-powered car it will utilize when the series becomes Extreme H, next year. Dubbed the Pioneer 25, signifying the car and series’ status as the world’s first hydrogen-powered racing series, the car has a peak power output of 400 kW (550 horsepower), which enables the 2,200 kg, 2.4 meter wide machine to reach 62 mph in 4.
5 seconds on any surface and up gradients of up to 130 percent. It features a number of evolutions and enhancements from the outgoing Odyssey 21, not only including the obvious integration of a hydrogen fuel cell, but also the results of four years of learning from the off-road championship to-date. “The chassis itself is a tubular spaceframe, same in principle as the Extreme E car but a lot of the learning from Extreme E has been carried forwards,” explained Extreme H’s technical director, ex-McLaren Formula 1 man Mark Grain.
“So it’s very much a refined and all-new version, even though the principals are the same.” One of the key changes, aside from the move to a hydrogen power source, is the bodywork, which does away with elements of the natural fiber composites used on the outgoing Odyssey 21 in favor of more fit-for-purpose carbon fiber. “With the Extreme E car, we had the green flax material.
As the racing developed, and we got side-by-side racing and a lot of bodywork damage, what we were discovering is actually we were using quite a lot of that, and it’s very difficult to repair,” explains Gra.
