This extreme electric competition makes a crazy bet!

As more and more manufacturers increase their investments in hydrogen, the Extreme E smells a good opportunity.

Since the launch of the championship in 2021, Extreme E’s communication has been somewhat shaky, even frankly demagogic. The slogan “Race for the Planet” leaves one dreaming. While the first races took place in 2021, the championship was initiated as early as 2018 by Alejandro Agag, the very person behind Formula E, the electric single-seater series, and the E1 Series, electric boat races… of course. Our French champion Sébastien Loeb won Extreme E in 2022 with Spanish champion Cristina Gutiérrez, the first woman to win a stage of the Dakar. Yes, all teams are mixed.

Extreme E rides the wave of the electric transition but with huge 4x4s weighing almost 2 tons and with power reaching 400 kW (550 hp). Speeds of 100 km/h are achieved in just 4.5 seconds. The races are sprints on rough terrains where half of the cars finish with missing parts or even flipped over. The chosen destinations for the events all symbolize the acceleration… of climate change: Saudi Arabia (the well-known Kingdom of all things electric), Scotland, Sardinia, Chile, and the United States. In the past, it featured the Arctic, Tierra del Fuego, the Amazon rainforest, or Senegal.

There is green, and green

So we have a spectacular championship that is somewhat more ecologically friendly than others with mixed teams in tune with the times… and yet it’s not working. It just goes to show that it’s not enough to mix good ingredients to make a good recipe.

Always on the lookout for a good opportunity, our good Alejandro Agag must have realized while reading Mobiwisy that the buzzword was Hydrogen. Without hesitation, he just canceled the last rounds of the 2024 season in Sardinia (September 14-15, 22-23) and in Phoenix (November 23-24) and announces that the championship is speeding up its transition to hydrogen! Extreme E is already a thing of the past, welcome to Extreme H. The car was unveiled only 3 days ago, so let’s just say we might be in for some reliability laughs… good luck Alejandro.

So why this turnaround? A major car championship needs the presence and funding of manufacturers to survive. An electric 4X4 championship holds no interest for them; however, promoting Hydrogen technology is another story. Shall we bet that agreements have already been signed, prompting this sudden interruption of the current season?

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