The Dakar Future Mission 1000 challenge, created on the sidelines of the 2024 edition, offers all tuners and manufacturers who wish to experiment with innovative technologies in terms of alternative engines, the opportunity to confront their vehicles with the Dakar terrain: a real open-air laboratory.
For its third edition, this competition, which promotes performance as much as autonomy and reliability, pits seven motorcycles against each other. They will be evaluated over 13 stages of about 100 kilometers, for a total of 1071 km to be covered in the special stage in total.
SEVEN BIKES IN CHARGE
Long distances off-road are the trickiest equation to solve when tackling it with an electric vehicle. Especially when it comes to a two-wheeler, for which the question of battery weight is paramount. It is perhaps in this direction that progress will be seen during the ride of the seven bikes expected in Yanbu. Benjamin Pascual, winner of last year’s challenge among motorcycles, has just celebrated his 21st birthday and remains the youngest rider on the Dakar, once again in the saddle on a Segway, the world leader in electric scooters. The Argentinian has some hopes in terms of slimming down his machine: “I went to China to see the progress of the new Segway. The most important thing is that they have reduced the weight of the battery by 40 kg, and the bike now weighs 200 kg. It still lacks development, but we already have a list of areas for improvement for 2027.”
ESTHER MERINO, VINTAGE ON THE HANDLEBARS OF THE FUTURE
Among the entries in Mission 1000 is the only female rider registered in two-wheelers this year. Esther Merino is not a complete stranger to the Dakar, however, as she took part in the Dakar Classic 2022, embarked on a great family adventure including a total of eight brothers and sisters, in four cars. But this Madrilenian is above all passionate about motorcycles, several times Spanish off-road champion, and is now looking in another direction: “We are three experienced riders,” explains the fifty-year-old in the prime of her life, “with great reliability in racing. Our goal is to win the category with one of our bikes. And that it will be an important, constructive challenge for the future.”
This ambition of victory for the Sino-Spanish team Arctic Leopard is also supported by former fighter jet pilot Miguel Puertas, who took part in 12 Dakars between 2004 and 2022, and their compatriot Fran Gomez Pallas, who is already looking a little further ahead: “I dream of taking a top rider to fight for the general classification in a few years’ time on an electric motorcycle. We will have to be allowed to change the battery with a neutralisation, in order to be able to compete with combustion bikes in the future. »
WITH JUVANTENY AND CRIADO, FULL OF EXPERIENCE
For the moment, the prize for loyalty and the honours of the trophies go to the Spanish truck of the KH7-Ecovergy team, which dominated the challenge in the first two editions thanks to a hydrogen-HVO hybrid technology. In addition to this specific engine, the truck has a crew with unrivalled experience, with 69 participations lined up on the three seats in its cab. Driver Jordi Juvanteny has 33 bibs, while his navigator Jose-Luis Criado is chasing the record among active competitors (34 bibs on the clock, compared to 35 for Stéphane Peterhansel, 36 for record holder Charly Gotlib), and engineer Xavi Ribas completes the trio after having already won the technology he has developed on the field twice.
The youngest of the group is never short of ideas on the subject of energy transition: “This year, we are using a new hybrid electric system, which can help us better face the dunes, as well as have a zero-emission mode inside the bivouac. We really hope to contribute to the Dakar Future with an innovative solution that can be implemented in all support and racing trucks. We are guarantors of the use of hydrogen as a clean alternative for the future.”
HYSE, ON ACTIVE BREAK
The launch of the Mission 1000 challenge for the 2024 edition had led to the creation of an unexpected consortium, bringing together five of Japan’s largest car manufacturers to give birth to a hydrogen-powered SSV. To give scope to the HySe (Hydrogen Small mobility and Engine technology) project, Toyota, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha pooled their skills and ran a first and then a second version of their vehicle on the Dakar tracks. In order to absorb all the data collected with optimal efficiency and to learn all the lessons from these first two experiments, HySe’s engineers wanted to take a break to take the time to develop a more efficient and autonomous model. The date is set for 2027.
MIKE HORN’S ENERGY FOR MISSION 1000
Adventurer Mike Horn has travelled the seas, polar expanses, equatorial forests and mountains of the world by all means, and recently competed twice in the Dakar Rally alongside Cyril Despres (2020-21), the last time with the ambition of developing a hydrogen-powered vehicle. The contours of his project have evolved, and the South African has now created generators with his company Inocel including a hydrogen fuel cell. They are the ones that will be used to provide part of the bivouac’s electricity needs, and to power the Mission 1000 vehicles: a test that could shape a more virtuous future for the Dakar.
