The electric car in Dakar 2017

Following Albert Bosch’s legacy, ACCIONA team participates in Dakar with an EV

The Catalan pilot was the pioneer, now two years ago, running the Dakar on a 100% electric car. The project was carried out together with his partner Agustín Payá and by the hand of ACCIONA. The two enthusiasts of electric mobility joined forces and knowledge to build a competent and multidisciplinary team. Capable of creating a sustainable vehicle designed to run in the world’s toughest race.

As stated by the participants, the goal of the challenge, beyond the sports objectives, was to use the aging of the event to achieve notoriety and media impact. And use that to let the audience and the motor world know about the value of sustainable mobility and Clean Energy, making them conscious about how necessary this opportunity is for our future.

In April 2014 the agreement with ACCIONA as a sponsor of the project was signed, and once funded, it launched. Then, the pressure began, the stress of having less than seven months to build something from scratch. But they succeeded with the help of a conscientious team. They passed the first two stages, the second with more difficulties, but bearing in mind that it was a critical year for the race in which a third of the vehicles of fuel retired because of a deadly trap in the route. It was in the third stage that the control failed and the team retired definitively from the race.

Of course, the project was criticized. All skeptics and opponents of the electric vehicle celebrated the failure. Facing the fact that we are talking about a world governed by the oil culture, but even so, the team members knew that without taking into account the ‘sports failure’, they have won a great victory. Albert Bosch and Agustín were the protagonists of the first attempt of the team, but they left their positions to future pilots who followed and still continue with the challenge. They managed to mark the steps of what smells like a revolution in the world of the electric automobile.

This story is found on the blog of the Catalan rider, who in honor of Dakar 2017 relives the experience and talks about the roots of this great project.

The Acciona Dakar team now enters its third Dakar Rally with the Argentinean pilots Ariel Jatón and Tito Rolón. The second edition was completed for 80% and the team certainly aspires to reach the goal in 2017.