Trucks with Allison Transmissions Sweep the Board in Grueling Dakar 2022 Rally Raid

Extreme driving conditions and the heat of competition demonstrate the wide-ranging advantages of fully automatic transmissions

SLEIDRECHT, Netherlands, January 31, 2022 – Allison Transmission, a leading designer and manufacturer of conventional and electrified vehicle propulsion solutions, equipped the top 10 and an additional seven of the top 20 finishers in the truck division of the Dakar 2022 rally raid, the latest running of the world’s toughest annual motorsport competition. The event’s extreme driving conditions once again affirmed the superiority of Allison fully automatic transmissions over semi-automatic and automated manual transmissions.

This year’s Dakar subjected competitors to a grueling 5,220-mile (8,400-kilometer) route through the deserts of Saudi Arabia. The event started in the port city of Jeddah on New Year’s Day and finished in the same location 14 days later after heading north-east and then south to the Arabian Peninsula’s legendary Empty Quarter. Vehicles and crews were pushed to their limits as they powered along rocky trails, across vast expanses of sand, and up and down towering dunes.

The majority of the top 20 finishers from 60 starters in Dakar 2022’s truck division used Allison’s 4000 Series™ fully automatic transmission. This transmission is suitable for all medium- and heavy-duty commercial engines, and widely used around the world by heavy duty construction vehicles, refuse trucks, fire and rescue trucks and defense vehicles.

Four finishing positions in the top 10 were taken by Allison-equipped Team de Rooy, the multiple time Dakar-winning team, which recently entered into a three-year partnership agreement with Allison to develop electrically-powered trucks for competition. The team’s new electrified rally truck, employing an Allison 4000 Series™ with retarder, is scheduled to compete in next year’s Dakar.

In this year’s event, Team de Rooy’s diesel-powered Iveco Powerstars claimed fifth place (crewed by Janus van Kasteren/Marcel Snijders/Darek Rodewald), sixth place (Martin van den Brink/Peter Willemsen/Bernard Der Kinderen), and 8th place (Vic Versteijnen/Teun van Dal/Randy Smits). Another of the team’s Allison-equipped entries, an Iveco Trakker (Mitchel van den Brink/Rijk Mouw/Bert Donkelaar) finished 10th.

“Dakar and other rally raids are really tough on mechanical components, especially the suspension, axles and transmission. On hard surfaces, severe vibrations go through the whole driveline and the entire truck for hour after hour, causing damage. And on loose sand, traditional clutch-operated transmissions limit traction at low speeds. That’s why in 2018 our team switched to Allison’s fully automatic transmission for better performance and durability,” said Gerard de Rooy, owner of Team de Rooy and two-time winner of the Dakar Rally, as both owner and driver.

Hino Team Sugawara, led by Teruhito Sugawara, also used Allison fully automatic transmissions in their trucks at this year’s Dakar rally. In 2007, Sugawara became the first to win Dakar in the under 10-liter class truck category, and then proceeded to win that category 12 consecutive times between 2010and 2021. This year – in a reminder that Allison technologies are equally suitable for diesel, hybrid and electric vehicles – the team competed for the first time with a hybrid vehicle. Sugawara’s Allison 3000 Series™-equipped Hino 600 Series-Hybrid truck crewed by Teruhito Sugawara/Hirokazu Somemiya/Yuji Mochizuki finished in 22nd place.

“Motorsport is a great laboratory for testing and developing technologies by pushing them to their limits and beyond, and there’s no motorsport rally more demanding than Dakar,” said Sjoerd Vos, Allison Transmission’s Director of Marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “The fact that almost all of the top 20 trucks in this year’s Dakar used Allison fully automatic transmissions speaks volumes about their efficient performance and robust dependability.”

The technical features which make Allison’s fully automatic transmissions so effective in the heat of competition also provide great real-world advantages in a wide range of vocational applications including wheeled defense vehicles which may also operate in rough terrains. Dakar 2022 affirmed not only Allison transmissions’ unrivalled reliability and durability, but also the superior responsiveness and drivability of fully automatic transmissions. These strengths are made possible by Allison’s torque converter, Continuous Power Technology™, DynActive™ Shifting and integral retarder.

Allison’s torque converter smoothly multiplies engine torque, delivering more power to the wheels for faster acceleration and greater maneuverability. This is a hydrodynamic system with a fully liquid planetary gear set, which eliminates the need for a dry clutch and reduces wear and tear on all parts of the drivetrain.

Allison’s Continuous Power Technology™ eliminates the interruptions to power delivery which occur when gear-shifts are made by manual or automated manual transmissions (AMTs). This ensures the transmission makes shifts at exactly the right time, taking into account payload, surface grip, and grade allowing smooth shifts and protecting the driveshaft, differential, axles and wheels. Allison’s transmissions provide superior maneuverability, acceleration, grade-ability and start-ability on steep hills, sand dunes and soft ground, convincingly demonstrated during Dakar 2022.

Allison’s DynActive™ Shifting also enhances drivability and responsiveness. Unlike older shifting technologies, which rely on pre-programmed shift schedules with fixed shift points, DynActive™ Shifting’s intelligent algorithm chooses the most efficient shift point according to the user’s specifications and vehicle and environmental parameters.

Having an integral retarder also sets Allison’s fully automatic transmissions apart from manual or AMTs. In addition to providing reassuringly powerful braking power, this takes away load from the service brakes to reduce brake wear. During Dakar, the integral retarder also helped with heat management of the wheel rims and tires, a critical issue when vehicles are being driven hard on deep sand and in high temperatures.

Feb 02, 2022

Back
Print

 

Allison Transmission (NYSE: ALSN) is a leading designer and manufacturer of vehicle propulsion solutions for commercial and defense vehicles, the largest global manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions, and a leader in electrified propulsion systems that Improve the Way the World Works. Allison products are used in a wide variety of applications, including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction, fire and emergency), buses (school, transit and coach), motorhomes, off-highway vehicles and equipment (energy, mining and construction applications) and defense vehicles (tactical wheeled and tracked). Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. With a presence in more than 150 countries, Allison has regional headquarters in the Netherlands, China and Brazil, manufacturing facilities in the USA, Hungary and India, as well as global engineering resources, including electrification engineering centers in Indianapolis, Indiana, Auburn Hills, Michigan and London in the United Kingdom. Allison also has approximately 1,600 independent distributor and dealer locations worldwide. For more information, visit allisontransmission.com.

Legal

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate” and other expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and trends and that do not relate to historical matters identify forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements reflect management’s good faith beliefs, reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: our participation in markets that are competitive; our ability to prepare for, respond to and successfully achieve our objectives relating to technological and market developments, competitive threats and changing customer needs, including with respect to electric hybrid and fully electric commercial vehicles; increases in cost, disruption of supply or shortage of labor, freight, raw materials, energy or components used to manufacture or transport our products or those of our customers or suppliers, including as a result of geopolitical risks, wars and pandemics; global economic volatility; general economic and industry conditions, including the risk of recession; labor strikes, work stoppages or similar labor disputes, which could significantly disrupt our operations or those of our principal customers or suppliers; the duration and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including new variants of the virus and the pace and availability of vaccines and boosters, mitigating efforts deployed by government agencies and the public at large, and the overall impact from such outbreak on economic conditions, financial market volatility and our business, including but not limited to the operations of our manufacturing and other facilities, the availability of labor, our supply chain, our distribution processes and demand for our products and the corresponding impacts to our net sales and cash flow; the highly cyclical industries in which certain of our end users operate; uncertainty in the global regulatory and business environments in which we operate; the concentration of our net sales in our top five customers and the loss of any one of these; the failure of markets outside North America to increase adoption of fully automatic transmissions; the success of our research and development efforts, the outcome of which is uncertain; U.S. and foreign defense spending; risks associated with our international operations, including acts of war and increased trade protectionism; the discovery of defects in our products, resulting in delays in new model launches, recall campaigns and/or increased warranty costs and reduction in future sales or damage to our brand and reputation; our ability to identify, consummate and effectively integrate acquisitions and collaborations; risks related to our indebtedness; and other risks and uncertainties associated with our business described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. All information is as of the date of this press release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in expectations and risks related to our indebtedness.

SOURCE Allison Transmission Holdings Inc.