Exclusive interview: Alejandro Agag on Extreme H – speed, hydrogen combustion and houdini
As the dust-covered ground of Quiddiya trembled under the power of eight Pioneer 25s, founder and serial entrepreneur Alejandro Agag sat down with a group of journalists to talk all things Extreme H. Driving Hydrogen’s very own Matt Lister was among this group.
Agag himself appeared amazed at the success of the three-day event: “It’s great! Sometimes it’s hard to believe it. When you are watching from the outside, it might look normal, like you’re still watching Extreme E, but no, it’s completely new technology and something that’s never been done before.”
“We call it Extreme H, but in this case, the H stands for Houdini”, Agag jokes.
Never-been-done-before tech
The week prior, Extreme E had been celebrated and bid farewell in what was fondly titled the “Final Lap”; now teams old and new look ahead to a hydrogen future. Agag reflects on the legacy of his first off-road series, “It was sad to close down Extreme E, but we have given it a new life as Extreme H.”
The establishment of the first-ever FIA-backed hydrogen World Cup was no easy feat, even for a man who has already founded Formula E, Extreme E and E1.
A key part of this challenge is “with hydrogen, there’s also a lot of myths, the car is going to crash and it’s going to blow up, well, we had rolls, we had crashes, and you can see that hydrogen is perfectly safe. So I think it was a really good message.”
Following this inaugural event, Extreme H’s identity is now closely tied to the city of Quiddiya, with Agag stating that the long-term contract with the city means “it will be the venue for five years now”, also noting “We may do other events prior to this one but this one will always be the final of the World Cup” and “It will always be, I think, this time of year [in October]”.
Quiddiya to be long-term venue for Extreme H
Though a roaring success, Agag’s ambitions in hydrogen have not been sated by one good weekend of racing. He is, for example, eyeing up the possibility of hydrogen combustion instead of fuel cells “I think it would potentially replace it, but also we will see where the market goes. Maybe we equalise and have both technologies racing.”
“There are still challenges of hydrogen combustion. I have not seen any motor that works for what we do, but when someone has one, they can bring it here and test it.”
Agag also provided an update on next year’s World Cup: “It’s going to be an open fuel cell championship, so you can bring your fuel cell and put it in the car”.
This will be a significant change, as this year Symbio provided all eight of the 75Kw hydrogen fuel cells. However, it will undoubtedly provide a new element of constructor competition.
More races, more performance
The switch from electricity to hydrogen was one that triggered countless questions in the media. Agag answered them at this roundtable: “I saw a gap in the market to do something in hydrogen, there was no hydrogen race, and our short races format was perfect for hydrogen”.
What he also sees a future of increased performance for the championship “What’s happened with this car is that they’re heavy, so as the technology evolves and the fuel cells get smaller, definitely the cars will be able to deliver more”.
Agag was able to confirm that there were OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) who were watching the race with piqued interest, but was unable to specify which ones.
He was similarly mysterious when questioned on what’s next on his list of ambitious projects, stating, “I have one, I cannot speak about it, but it’s going to blow all your minds”, and indeed it is hard to doubt him on this, as the debut of Extreme H was certainly mind-boggling to behold.
