Electric Car Finishes Dakar Rally
Engineering360 News Desk | January 27, 2017When it crossed the finish line in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered reached a milestone by becoming the first zero-emissions electric vehicle to complete the 5,600 mile (9,000 km) Dakar Rally,
The EcoPowered electric car during the 2017 Dakar Rally in South America. Source: ACCIONAThe 4x4 vehicle developed by ACCIONA of Spain is powered by a 250 kW synchronous electric motor, six ultra-fast charging lithium battery modules, and a 100 W solar panel (see video).
The 2017 Dakar Rally was reportedly one of the toughest to date, owing to extreme weather. The route apparently had to be redesigned as a result of the Río Grande bursting its banks, and the race experienced a withdrawal rate of more than 26% in the Cars class.
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Has anyone yet heard from the skeptical engineer?
Dakar is a real race. It's fast (127 mph average), there are extreme elevation changes, and driving it includes a LOT of acceleration. The average amount power required to be delivered over the entire course is minimally 125 KW over 45 hours. That's on the order of 5,625 KW-H. If a required recharge was 100KW-H (a largish battery), and was accomplished in 15 minutes, the capacity of the recharging station would need to be 400KW. Thus, from from a 480 volt source, we would need 833 amperes. Here's where reality likely treads on the "zero-emissions" claim. 400KW would require 40,000 square feet of transportable solar panels to recharge at a clear high noon. And at night? I suppose we have to presume that recharging was accomplished by massive diesel or combustion turbine generators on trucks. Zero emissions? I think not.
Like the Tesla sedan, this effort shows a lot of technical savvy. Just finishing Dakar is a great accomplishment, and shows the grit and toughness of the drivers and crew. But for goodness sake, lets not gush over how "green" and "clean" we are. At the end of the day, the energy had to come from somewhere, and the Dakar route is not populated with Tesla Supercharger stations running from wind, solar, hydro or nuclear. The energy consumed was on the order of 150 days of residential energy usage. At my residential electric rate, we are talking about $1,400 worth.
In closing, the ACCIONA websites covering this event did not speak to the actual logistics of refueling the race car. Oh, and the 100W solar panel on the car roof? 1 millisecond of propulsion. We in the engineering community expect details, not the usual "electric is great" mantra.