We first told you about Gaussin a few days ago. The French company provided a fascinating video of its electric skateboard chassis for trucks up to class 8 tractors, which will offer fuel cells or batteries. Our impression was that the company was only going to sell this skateboard chassis to other companies, but it has just shown it also wants to make people know who Gaussin is. Pininfarina will help it with this task.
The Italian design company has already developed “a completely new cab concept” for the French company’s trucks. According to Pininfarina, it was conceived to “blend in with the environment in a quiet and intelligent way.” Those words suggest it had a great concern with aerodynamics, which is more than understandable: the less drag such trucks present, the quieter and more efficient they will be.
Gaussin said these Pininfarina cabs would be used in five applications. The most important ones are class 8 tractors 44 T (4x2 or 6x4). Apart from the 800-km FCET (fuel cell electric truck) and the 400-km BET (battery electric truck) options, the French truck makers said it could also offer a vehicle with 1,200 km of range if it combines fuel cells and batteries, as the video below shows.
Gaussin also plans to have rigid trucks for clean and quiet distribution in city areas, construction, waste management, and even an H2 Racing Truck. In the teaser, we can see four truck designs. Neither Gaussin nor Pininfarina have revealed when these trucks will have their official introduction.
The companies also have not disclosed when these new clean trucks will be delivered to customers. They are probably not in a hurry: all promises made so far are still far from reaching the market. Nikola wanted to make money both from selling fuel cell trucks and offering the hydrogen infrastructure they will need, but it is yet to present any of them.
When it comes to Tesla, the Semi needs the 4680 cells to be in full production, and Elon Musk already said they would just arrive in May 2022 in the best-case scenario. Although there is no rush, Gaussin could benefit from presenting its trucks before these guys: first come, first served.
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