Allison 3000 Series™ Transmission to Be Used in Hino Team Sugawara Trucks at Dakar Rally 2022

Team to use hybrid trucks for the first time in support of environmentally friendly and sustainable racing

TOKYO, December 2021 – Allison Transmission Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Allison Transmission, a leading designer and manufacturer of conventional and electrified vehicle propulsion solutions and the largest global manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions for commercial and defense vehicles, has announced that it has provided Allison’s 3000 Series™ transmission with torque converter to Hino Team Sugawara, which will compete in the truck division of Dakar Rally 2022, one of the world's toughest off-road races. The race will mark the first time that the team will use hybrid vehicles.

Hino Team Sugawara is a joint team formed by Hino Motors and Japan Racing Management to race in the Dakar Rally. Led by Teruhito Sugawara, a Dakar Rally 2022 driver and the team’s representative, Hino Team Sugawara will drive hybrid vehicles for the first time in its history with an eye to achieving environmental sustainability. The team’s vehicles will once again be equipped with Allison 3000 Series transmissions, as they were for the 2021 Dakar Rally. Sugawara has competed as a Dakar Rally driver since 2005. In 2007 he became the first to win in the under 10-liter class truck category, and between 2010 and 2021 he won 12 consecutive times in that category.

Hino Team Sugawara has been competing for more than 30 years. The team’s participation in Dakar Rally 2020 using Hino 600 series trucks marked the first time it used the Allison 3000 Series, acclaimed for its performance, durability and usability.

“While many rival teams in the trucks division use 13-liter displacement engines, the largest that race rules permit, we have used engines that are 10 liters or smaller ever since we began competing,” said Sugawara. “The A09C engine that our vehicles use has a small displacement of 8,866cc, while the Allison automatic transmissions we use, which feature torque converters, provide added torque and Continuous Power Technology™ that get us to top speed fast. Since vehicles in the truck division have a top speed limited to 140 km/h, at how high a level one can maintain average speed is also key. That is why using Allison Automatics, which allow for superior acceleration and uninterrupted power delivery regardless of terrain, is so critical. Hino Motors has been making and selling commercial hybrid and EV vehicles since 1991, and the vehicles we will be racing utilize these technologies. So I also wanted to see how eco-friendly and competitive these trucks were.”

“I am very much looking forward to the team’s first Dakar Rally using hybrid vehicles powered by Allison Automatics,” said Nicolas Dalmaz, Executive Director, APAC Sales. “Allison has developed technologies with the underlying goal of helping achieve zero emissions for the entire commercial vehicle industry and bringing about a sustainable society. We will be rooting for racers to fully demonstrate their accumulated racing experience and safely give it their all for the 14 days of the event.

The Dakar Rally will begin in Hail, Saudi Arabia, on January 2, 2022, and take racers across nearly 8,000km to the finish line in Jeddah on January 14.

22 Dec, 2021

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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.

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SOURCE Allison Transmission Holdings Inc.