Desert Camel Power - a pathbreaking tool to assess vehicles in desert

Nissan Middle East announced a new concept of ‘Desert Camel Power’ which will ‘eventually revolutionise the way vehicles are evaluated for desert performance.’

Developed by Nissan engineers, ‘Desert Camel Power’ uses a scientifically proven formula to determine, in an accurately measurable and reproducible way, how a given vehicle will perform in typical desert off-road conditions.“Over the past two years we have been researching what elements make a vehicle such as the Nissan Patrol so well-suited to desert driving,” said engineer Joseph Rachid El Hachem, Desert Camel Power Unit Engineer. “Basically, we found that it comes down to the interplay between the vehicle’s weight, its velocity and its trajectory. Other factors including manoeuvrability, engine torque and of course the skill of the driver do come into play and cannot be discounted. However, if we standardise a vehicle’s approach speed and trajectory in a given environment we can time how quickly it travels a set distance and subsequently factor in its weight to work out its Desert Camel Power.”Samir Cherfan, managing director, Nissan Middle East said: “In some ways, it is perhaps surprising that such a formula has not been developed before now, given the amount of time and energy the off-road community puts into making claims and counter-claims about what constitutes a good desert vehicle.“However, it is typical of Nissan to tackle the issue head-on and take this ground-breaking first step. We are proud that the development work has focused on Gulf countries. We are also confident that the concept will find widespread acceptance among both the leisure off-road community and those who live and work in areas where off-road capability in a vehicle is absolutely essential.” Nissan engineers got together scientists working in the field of metrology (the scientific study of measurement) to both define and find ways to measure Desert Camel Power using methods that are universally reproducible. It took time, effort, inspiration, and no lack of mathematical genius to come up with the formula which can be applied to any off-road vehicle, anywhere in the world that positions itself as being desert-capable. That formula can be rendered as: CP = velocity x weight x sin (trajectory). The scientific paper resulting from this collaboration and the formula itself have been presented to Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA). According to Nissan, ESMA will undertake the requisite testing to standardise the new unit, first on a regional and eventually on a global basis.Desert Camel Power will in future be used in all Nissan Middle East showrooms and marketing literature to define the desert capabilities Nissan’s SUV line-up.“Desert Camel Power is a means to scientifically measure and define a given vehicle’s fitness to take on the dunes, and act as a touchstone for Nissan engineers going forward, as they seek, in particular, to build upon Patrol’s capabilities as a conqueror of the dunes,” Cherfan added.