An unlikely partnership between Metallica and Iveco is behind a fleet of large rigs powered by batteries and hydrogen gas cells hitting the street this summer time for the European leg of Metallica’s M72 World Tour. The Italian heavy truck maker and American heavy metallic band first teamed up final 12 months, and Iveco celebrated by exhibiting off a special-edition livery that the vehicles will put on on tour, making stops alongside 9 main European cities, because the Cool Down stories.
The vehicles hauling Metallica’s gear throughout Europe are a mixture of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell fashions, in line with Semafor. That makes Metallica one of many earliest adopters and probably the most high-profile proponents of FCEVs but. It appears the one factor Metallica hates greater than file-sharing is carbon emissions. Per Semafor:
When the enduring metallic band goes on tour throughout Europe this summer time, a few of its guitars and drums will probably be hauled in vehicles powered by hydrogen gas cells. The band is eager to chop the carbon footprint of its excursions, stated Gerrit Marx, CEO of the Italy-based truck producer Iveco Group, which is designing customized low-carbon vehicles for the tour: “Everywhere they have concerts, we can engage together on sustainability.”
The Iveco collaboration makes Metallica the most recent advocate for hydrogen, a controversial gas that might finally be important to the clear vitality transition however the international provide of which is at present made nearly completely from unabated fossil fuels. Marx spoke to me on stage throughout Baker Hughes’ annual assembly in Florence, Italy, the place a number of the world’s greatest traders in hydrogen stated the important thing to realizing the gas’s inexperienced aspirations is to show a blind eye, for now, to the way it will get made. Instead, they’re chasing any attainable finish consumer — from metal crops to metallic bands — to scale the trade up on the expectation that falling prices for renewable vitality and carbon seize expertise will finally make hydrogen a real resolution to local weather change.
Iveco will probably be supplying Metallica with EV fashions of its S-Way vehicles, often known as the S-eWay, in addition to some vehicles that run on liquified pure fuel, which aren’t fairly as eco-friendly because the EV and FCEV fashions however have considerably larger vary. The S-eWay vehicles have a spread of as much as 500 kilometers, or 311 miles, whereas the S-Way LNG vehicles can go as much as 1,600 kilometers, or 994 miles.
The newest hydrogen-powered FCEVs from Iveco have a spread of as much as 800 kilometers (497 miles). But it’s unclear which S-eWay Fuel Cell vehicles Iveco will lend Metallica, since final 12 months’s announcement solely talked about the S-Way LNG and S-eWay, which had simply been refreshed, because the Financial Post stories:
To shut the launch occasion, a particular announcement was made a few partnership between IVECO and rock legends Metallica. IVECO will assist Metallica through the European leg of their M72 World Tour, working from May to July 2024, with electrical and pure fuel vehicles accompanying the band throughout varied areas, and IVECO electrical and fuel minibuses serving as shuttles through the live shows. The IVECO automobiles will assist scale back the tour’s CO2 emissions, and a number of other different initiatives will probably be carried out based mostly on the core values of environmental sustainability and social duty embraced by each the model and the band. The theme tune for the total MY24 vary is “It’s Electric” carried out by Metallica.
Metallica will even use Iveco minibus EVs as shuttles throughout their live shows, with the intention to additional scale back carbon emissions. It can be simple to name this an empty gesture, however the band genuinely appears intent on decreasing its carbon emissions, versus another up to date artists like Taylor Swift. Or, it may simply be an train in good PR for each the truck maker and Metallica.
But nothing rocks more durable than renewables and decrease emissions, and the heavy metallic icons from LA appear to agree. The Iveco EV partnership is one other feather in its renewables cap: Metallica has dedicated practically $2 million to assist “Metallica scholars,” a few of that are budding staff within the renewables sector, like wind turbine technicians from lower-income Texas colleges. Every little bit counts, I suppose. Who is aware of? Maybe Metallica has lastly quenched its thirst for gasoline.
Source: jalopnik.com