Extreme E unveils hydrogen car for next season – same specs, 305kg heavier
Extreme E, the electric off-road racing series, is transitioning to using hydrogen instead of batteries for the 2025 season, and today it unveiled the car it plans to use next year – when it will also change its name to Extreme H.
Extreme E is in the midst of its fourth season right now, having had the first race weekend in Saudi Arabia and with the second race weekend coming up in Scotland, July 13-14.
In the past three seasons, we’ve been treated to some pretty wild off-road racing, with powerful electric cars bouncing over desert sand dunes, glaciers, beaches, and even an old coal mine.
It’s been exciting to watch, but the series also has a sustainability message – each location is meant to highlight an ecological issue we’re all facing, and the series also does a “legacy programme” where it participates in attempting to solve some local conservation issue (e.g. mangrove or ocean seagrass preservation, wildfires, glacier melt, or so on).
To this end, the series also focuses on being sustainable in its own practices. Cars are shipped from race to race on the St. Helena, an ship converted to use more sustainable technologies and to serve as a research lab for the scientists the series partners with. And the series tries to create less waste in each of its locations, with everyone bringing their own reusable plates and silverware for example.
And since it races in remote locations, it needs to get energy from somewhere. The cars don’t just charge themselves. So the series has been using green hydrogen – made with renewable energy, as opposed to the majority of hydrogen which comes from methane gas – to charge vehicles, with large transportable fuel cells (and second life batteries for backup) bringing power to areas where the grid doesn’t reach.
So, for season 5, Extreme E is “cutting out the middle man” and just going straight from hydrogen to electric power onboard the car, instead of charging a battery with an offboard fuel cell. And here’s next season’s vehicle, which Extreme E – or rather, Extreme H, as it will be known starting in 2025 – is calling the “Pioneer 25.”
Extreme H unveils Pioneer 25 race car
The Pioneer 25 shares a lot of similarities with the outgoing Odyssey 21 car.
They both have ~400kW/550hp worth of power available, can do 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds with a top speed of ~200kph (~124mph), and can scale a slope of up to 130% (53º). So in terms of the basic specs, the cars seem quite close.
But there are a couple small differences that we can see so far. The Odyssey 21 was 2.3 meters wide, and the Pioneer 25 is 2.4 meters. The Odyssey had two “seats,” with the driver offset to the left, whereas the Pioneer seats the driver in the center.
And the biggest difference of all – Extreme E said that the Odyssey weighs 1,895kg (we’re not sure if this includes the driver or not), but it says that the Pioneer weighs 2,200kg, a 305kg (672lb) increase.
That’s a massive difference, especially for a race car, and especially if the cars have the same power available. We’re not sure how they can quote the same 0-60 time with such a weight difference and no difference in motor power (torque is not listed, but is likely the same given that battery electric (BEV) and fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) both run on electric motors, so we’d imagine they’re carrying over the same or similar motors).
And we’re also not sure where all that weight is coming from. One of the supposed benefits of hydrogen is higher energy density, which means less need for heavy EV batteries. But an FCEV needs two more parts that a BEV doesn’t – a fuel cell stack and a high-pressure hydrogen tank. FCEV’s also have a battery to act as a buffer for the fuel cell stack, but it can be a lot smaller than on a full BEV.
But the Odyssey only had 54kWh (40kWh usable) of batteries onboard to begin with – relatively small in the scheme of EV batteries these days. Off-road racing is energy intense, but races for the series aren’t very long, so 40kWh is enough. So cutting battery size could save some weight, but not all that much.
So perhaps the Pioneer still has a relatively large battery (as larger batteries can push more power), and the additional weight of a fuel cell stack and high pressure tank – the last of which has to be pretty heavy duty to hold hydrogen, especially in the difficult racing conditions Extreme H will be racing in (a 700 bar, 4-6kg capacity tank is around 100kg – the Pioneer has a 2kg tank, but may be reinforced more for racing purposes).
Extreme H says that “overall performance of the car has taken a big step forward,” and that the suspension geometry of the car has been fully redesigned. The Odyssey also saw changes over its lifetime, changing suspension suppliers last season to FOX, and the Extreme H will also use FOX suspension.
But we’re still not sure how a car with identical power and much more weight can perform better. Let’s go ahead and put a pin in that for when we see these cars in action.
Thankfully, we’ll have a chance soon. The Pioneer 25 will go on its first public test at the Hydro X Prix in Scotland on July 13-14.
Extreme H also announced a provisional list of race locations for next year, with races in Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, Italy, and USA.
Electrek’s Take
I think that most of our readers recognize at this point that hydrogen is not going to take off in consumer vehicles. If this series wants to push hydrogen as an idea for consumer cars, or for sportscars, it’s… probably not going to go anywhere.
However, for the race series’ specific use case, it makes some amount of sense. The series was already using hydrogen anyway, and hydrogen is a lot more portable than batteries for places with no grid. And Extreme E thinks it has made its point, demonstrated that BEVs are capable of this type of racing, and can move on to something new now.
But the fact that this move has resulted in such a huge weight gain for the cars is puzzling to me. While I have seen extremely heavy tanks on fuel cell vehicles before (e.g. the Nikola Tre FCEV class 8 truck has four tanks weighing 450lb each, a fuel cell stack and a 164kWh buffer battery, and the Honda CR-V e:FCEV is 1,000lbs heavier than the gas CR-V), you don’t normally see racing/sports cars gaining such enormous amounts of weight in the span of one generation (the 1,000+lb heavier 2025 BMW M5 notwithstanding).
So I struggle somewhat to see the point of this. Previously, Extreme E hosted awesome race events with a neat story, demonstrating environmental issues and showing a realistic and sustainable answer for transportation – BEVs. It fueled those BEVs with hydrogen through offboard stacks and tanks, leaving the weight and complexity of them behind in the paddock as the cars frolick around in the dirt.
Now, it’s hosting awesome race events with a neat story, demonstrating environmental issues and showing off… a transportation answer that demonstrably doesn’t make any sense, lumbering around carrying all this extra equipment that will never see the light of day at scale in consumer applications.
The one thing it could help to encourage is getting the green hydrogen economy going, since currently ~95% of the global supply of hydrogen comes from methane, a fossil fuel that is incredibly damaging from a climate perspective. Green hydrogen is generated by electrolysis of water via renewable energy, essentially using the hydrogen as a more portable but less efficient battery to store that renewable energy.
A green hydrogen economy could be useful if we ever come up with widespread uses for hydrogen (which could find a niche in heavy transport) – but those uses aren’t likely to come in consumer applications. And if they result in a 305kg weight penalty, I don’t really see them happening in racing applications either.
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Yolo County, California depends on its climate for continued agricultural success. As such, the county’s leaders are taking environmental stewardship seriously by aiming for full carbon neutrality by 2030. To help achieve that goal, they’re putting zero-emission machinery like the Volvo DD25 Electric compactor to work.
We got our first chance to sample the DD25 Electric at Volvo Days last summer, where the all-electric tandem roller’s vibrating drums impressed dealers and end users alike. It was no surprise, then, that when Yolo Country fleet superintendent, Ben Lee, when shopping for a compactor the DD25 Electric was high on his list.
“The DD25 Electric will help us achieve our goals in several ways,” explains Lee. “By reducing emissions, lowering noise levels, being more energy-efficient, improving working conditions and promoting environmentally friendly practices … we’ll use it to compact soil, gravel and other base materials for road and foundation projects, as well as rolling out and leveling asphalt during road construction and resurfacing.”
To help Lee handle those various projects, the Volvo’s drum frequency can be adjusted from 3500 vpm (55 Hz) to 4000 vpm (67 Hz) to cater to different applications and materials.
The DD25 Electric offers other benefits, as well – like a 20 kWh 48V battery that offers up between six and eight hours of continuous operation. That’s could be several shifts in the kind of conditions Yolo’s work crews will encounter, meaning it will only have to get put to bed (Volvo recommend overnight AC charging) two or three times a week.
Getting power to the compactor, too, is something Yolo is considering. “There are some remote areas in the county, so we’re looking into a mobile, self-contained charging unit as well,” explains Lee, apparently referencing the Volvo PU130 mobile battery. “So we wouldn’t have to bring the machine back to the yard each night during a long-term project.”
Yolo County views electric equipment as an essential step in reducing emissions and energy consumption, especially as communities work towards stricter regulations and sustainability goals.
Electrek’s Take
This press release came to us ahead of the devastating wild fires in Southern California that are dominating headlines right now – so much so that I effectively sat on the news for a few days, debating whether or not we should even be talking about a California news story that isn’t about the fires right now.
But I realized: this story is about the fires. Climate change driven by combustion and carbon emissions is driving climate change and that’s making fires like these possible … and I should have run it sooner.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo CE.
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Kubota came to this year’s CES with a sprawling display filled with electric equipment, hydrogen gensets, and an onslaught of commercial robots ready to mow, farm, dig, and build. If you weren’t impressed by Kubota’s display this year, you weren’t paying attention.
Kubota gave us a sneak peek of its KATR farm robot – itself a smaller, updated version of last year’s New Agri Concept – before the doors officially opened last week. Kubota’s robotic farm buddies promise to be able to quietly and autonomously haul stuff from one end of the farm to another, or pull carts and specialized implements along predetermined paths.
KATR uses self-leveling technology and active suspension to ensure its cargo deck stays level when working on the sort of uneven terrain found on farms or construction sites.
That doesn’t mean the New Agri Concept is dead, though. Agri Concept 2.0 debuted as an electric tractor concept offering AI-powered automation and a fully electric powertrain. The new version features a Lite Brite-style “grille” that it uses to communicate its current mode, direction, and other important information with the people it shares a job site with.
On the more practical side, Kubota showed off its KX38-4e Electric compact excavator. First shown in overseas markets in 2022, the KX38-4e Electric features a 49.2 kWh lithium-ion battery that’s good for up to five hours of continuous operation. More than enough to complete a typical day of work on a construction site when you factor out idle time.
An onboard DC fast charger means it can be quickly recharged between shifts, too. But when there’s no grid power on the site, charging can be a challenge. That’s why Kubota has hydrogen genset for zero-emission on-site power generation.
Looked at individually, each of the new electric Kubota products on display might be impressive. The real magic, though, is in the way the Kubota machines work together as a holistic job site or farm solution.
“At Kubota, we believe that truly listening to our customers drives innovation in every aspect of what we call the ‘Work Loop’,” explains Brett McMickell, Chief Technology Officer of Kubota North America. “The Work Loop — an essential cycle of assessing, analyzing, and acting — has always been fundamental to effective task management. With the integration of advanced sensors, AI-driven analysis, networking protocols, automation, and robotics, we are enhancing this cycle to be more seamless and efficient than ever before.”
That was obvious in some of the more thoughtful implements and attachments on display, including a Smart Plant Imager that uses advanced robotics and “hyper-spectral imaging” cameras to capture real-time data and insights on a plant-by-plant level – as well as a Smart Autonomous Sprayer and Robotic Pruner that that classifies buds and canes based on position and fruiting potential, it optimizes production precision and accuracy.
The more you look, the more impressive Kubota’s farming solution gets. “We will continue to learn from many of our customers across segments to iterate the next product and technology solution that will help them manage tomorrow’s challenges and grow their businesses,” McMickell added. “This is how Kubota works to make a better quality of life for individuals and society.”
There was more, of course. Autonomous versions of the company’s electric zero-turn mower with GPS-powered route memory, fun accessory baskets for the robots, even a weird, jet engine looking thing that I forgot to ask about (below). I was genuinely impressed, in other words, and can’t wait to see what Kubota comes up with next year.
Kubota CES2025 | more photos
Original content from Electrek.
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The e-bike industry has stalled a little bit in terms of features, and with harsh new legislation coming in from places like California, maybe it is time to start looking at e-bikes that are light, efficient, and smooth rather than how much wattage they can output. The Tenways CGO 600Pro, which comes in at just 37 pounds, is a model e-bike you should keep an eye on…
The CGO 600Pro comes in 2 flavors: a carbon belt single-speed version that Micah reviewed and this one, which is a chain and 8-speed Shimano gears. The belt drive is going to win out on simplicity and weight but if you are expecting to get close to the ‘class 1’ top speed of 20mph or need to go up some significant hills, you’ll want to opt for the chain/gear version here.
One thing I love about this bike is the tradeoff decisions. These keep the price low and weight down while still providing a great ride. The spec sheet overall is solid but not top-shelf.
Tenways CGO600 Pro tech specs (chain/geared version)
- Motor: 350 Watt rear hub motor with 45 Nm of torque
- Top speed: 20 mph (32 km/h)
- Range: Claimed up to 53 miles (85 km)
- Battery: 36V 10Ah (360 Wh)
- Weight: 37 lb (16.8 kg, over 40lbs with fenders, kickstand, etc)
- Frame: 6061 aluminum alloy
- Tires: CST Puncture-proof 700*45C-size Tires
- Brakes: Tektro dual-piston hydraulic disc brakes
- Gearing: Shimano 8-Speed Claris
- Extras: Compact LED display, 4 pedal assist levels, slim fender set, kickstand, internally routed cables, LED lighting, removable battery, Tenways app integration, torque sensor, four color options
No Throttle?
Note that as a class 1 e-bike, neither belt/chain version has a throttle. While this may be controversial to some, it not only simplifies the bike, it makes it a Class 1, which will be legal in the most places. I tend to think of no throttle as a “foot throttle” and for the commuter application, this will serve well. Would I appreciate a throttle on a hill start? Perhaps.
The idea of this bike is to just enhance your pedal bike experience. You are going to get some exercise on this bike versus a bike that is a glorified low-power moped that runs on throttle with vestigial pedals.
More importantly, the torque sensor here is phenomenal; I mean, it is probably the best torque sensor I’ve ridden connected to a rear hub motor. The acceleration is smooth and strangely powerful for the 350W/45nm motor. Significant hills are a breeze, and this is one of the few bikes where I forget that I’m using an e-bike sometimes (until I look down and I’m going 20mph with little effort). Hills are also where the gearing really helps.
The tires are also the perfect size for a commuter with puncture resistance and treads that will do OK in rain and snow.
The bike itself is also very stealthy in terms of showing that it is a powered e-bike. The small 36V, 10Ah battery is integrated magnificently into the narrow downtube of the bike. All of the cables are integrated into the bike frame for a super-clean look. The rear hub motor is small but packs a punch. Many people won’t even recognize this as an e-bike. While I’m proud to be riding an e-bike around, perhaps some people would like to keep that on the down-low.
Brakes are great with hydraulic Tektros clasping against 160mm rotors in front and back. It is such a light bike that stopping can be jarring.
Assembly was super easy and took about 30 minutes with the included tool set. The battery came about 40% charged but was ready to go within a few hours with the 3A charger. Shoutout to Tenways for using a water-resistant standardized barrel charger adapter and not some proprietary adapter so that I can use one from another bike when I inevitably lose it.
Electrek’s take
The Tenways CGO600 is a fantastic light, clean, stiff and smooth e-bike that I have 0 reservations about recommending. While the battery and motor are small, they power the light bike admirably and for around 50 miles (your mileage will vary).
Currently there is a $200 off promotion code “HAPPY2025TW” at checkout bringing the CGO600Pro down to $1399 which is an amazing price for this bike:
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