When we think of a Hummer H1 – of military origin, adapted for civilian use – we do not think of an efficient and environmentally friendly vehicle. We think its antithesis. But is not the case for Nick Baggarly. He is the leader of the expedition Zero South , an expedition that will take two Hummer H1 completely changed to the South Polo – in the middle of Antarctica – with the aim of fighting for a sustainable global mobility . With a Hummer H1? Yes, a hybrid of high technology not burning a drop of fossil fuel. Intrigued?
The Hummer is not the greenest vehicle on the planet. But these are very special Hummer.
Nick Baggarly The idea arose a few years ago. Always was a fan of off-road and great hiking. It has crossed the world several times and an unconditional fan of the Land Rover Defender, his favorite vehicle for adventures declared. But I always wanted to go further, and routes that have a purpose . After delivering medical and school supplies to remote villages in Belize with their Land Rover supplies, it proposed a trip from north to south of the planet, and vice versa.
With stop in Tibet including the goal was to draw attention to Parkinson’s disease, with several members of his family have been diagnosed. The latest adventure of this wealthy philanthropist called Zero South, and take with his team drive about 1,000 km in Antarctica to get the world to the South Pole , located on an icy plains of the continent least explored the planet. Its aim is to demonstrate that clean fuels allow us to get where we want.
want to be the first to reach the South Pole without using fossil fuels.
This is where the two vehicles, baptized Polar Traverse Hybrid Vehicles (PTV 1 and 2) enter. The two vehicles are already built and just look anything like the Hummer H1 of departing. Let’s just say the chassis is the same. Baggarly chose the Hummer H1 for being one of the few wider than tall SUVs, an essential quality in the ice of Antarctica. One of the first changes was to replace their tires with rubber tracks, like a tank treated.
But there is much more than simple strings. The 5.7 V8 original gasoline engine – or worse, the 6.5 V8 turbodiesel manufactured by Detroit Diesel – has been abandoned in favor of a hybrid scheme of art developed with Steyr and Electrovaya , and built by K & N Engineering . The heat engine of this hybrid is a 3.2 turbodiesel inline six-cylinder Steyr, with 218 hp. Electric motors 200 hp continuous power are located on each axis, connected to two batteries.
Mindful of the threatening aspect of these Hummer, painted in colors of the most striking.
Two batteries of 24 kWh of capacity, redundant to allow operation in case of failure by extreme cold. They have about 50 km of autonomy 100% electric and over 1,000 km of autonomy in hybrid mode. The PTV synthetic biodiesel used as fuel and have a total weight of about 5.4 tons . Some of the components come from the shooting line HMMMV military, as part of his body, taken from a surplus Hummer ambulance Iraq. Everything has been perfectly isolated.
The expedition will begin in a few months and will be broadcast live on social networks. In addition, they recorded a documentary of the trip.
See the complete gallery motor
Source: Car Stories
More information: Zero South (official website)
In motor: The vicissitudes of Syberia-Mongolian expedition 2009