Pininfarina-designed Namx HUV with swappable hydrogen tanks wins Green Good Design Sustainability award

Italian design house Pininfarina has won the Green Good Design Sustainability award 2023 for green transportation for its Namx HUV, which was unveiled in May 2022 and later showcased at the Paris Motor Show last year.

The Namx HUV is a hydrogen-powered SUV in part fuelled by removable capsules, paving the way to a seamless and carbon-free experience of mobility. It is the world’s first car partially run by patented removable tank system that promises to change the paradigm of clean mobility and make hydrogen fuel widely available. The Namx HUV was designed by Pininfarina in collaboration with the De Lussac design studio.

In October 2022, at the Paris Motor Show, Afro-European technology firm Namx revealed the new hydrogen-powered SUV that breaks with fuel cell convention in featuring six individual hydrogen capsules that can be swapped out to speed up fuel stops.  

The Green Good Design Sustainability Award is a prestigious reward that aims to bestow international recognition to those outstanding individuals, companies, organisations, governments and institutions – together with their products, services, ideas and concepts – that have forwarded exceptional thinking and inspired greater progress toward a healthier and more sustainable world.

The jury rewarded Pininfarina’s expertise in designing innovative and sustainable solutions thanks to its continuous research on trends and to its multidisciplinary skills. Pininfarina has created these products keeping in mind two main concepts: reducing the impact on the environment and thinking about a sustainable business model.

Along with the capsules, Namx HUV is also fitted with a fixed hydrogen tank and together they power either a top-of-the-range 542bhp or entry-level 296bhp electric motor.

Called the HUV, it is claimed to be able to achieve a range of almost 500 miles / 800 kilometres. Along with the capsules, it is also fitted with a fixed hydrogen tank and together they power either a top-of-the-range 542bhp or entry-level 296bhp electric motor. Scheduled to be released at the end of 2025, it will be available in either top-spec four-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive forms. The HUV will be sold from Q4 2025 with a price range of between 65,000 euros (Rs 57 lakh) and 95,000 euros (Rs 83.5 lakh), depending on the options selected.

Leveraging a patented system of removable hydrogen capsules, NamX intends to make possible an experience of clean mobility as a service, free of the constraints traditionally attached to decarbonised journeys. With multiple uses ahead and user-friendly decentralised distribution, the capsules will initially power the HUV.

The use of capsules as secondary tanks is a breakthrough innovation that opens the door to the large-scale deployment of hydrogen for private vehicles through a new, totally decentralised, on-demand energy distribution model.

The Namx project commenced by first designing the removable hydrogen tanks. As a result, the Namx HUV could probably be the first car in Pininfarina’s history designed from the back to the front.

The design story

Pininfarina’s styling touch is seen all over the Namx HUV, right down to the brand's X engraved on the doors in continuous lines and repeated on the grille.

Pininfarina and Namx adopted a completely new creative approach while designing together the HUV, aiming the next-generation SUV to be a futuristic fusion of muscular main volumes, aggressive graphics, and a touch of retro around the lamp elements. This called for a new design language and identity, not just to announce a new brand but to give an all-new meaning to the innovative hydrogen concept never seen before.

The Namx project commenced by first designing the removable hydrogen tanks and understanding what would be the best way to integrate them into the car from a functional, ergonomic and user experience point of view. Keeping in mind the positioning of its occupants and the intricate packaging of the tanks and the rear, the overall volume of the vehicle started to take shape.

As a result, the Namx HUV could probably be the first car in Pininfarina’s history designed from the back to the front. The HUV, seen from the side, has a high-slung, wedge silhouette. There's also the purposeful nose, a rising body-side that eventually culminates in an extremely powerful and muscular rear volume.

On the side, two intersecting lines subconsciously create an ‘X’ – a deliberate attempt to visually read the brand name NAM’X’ within the car’s surfacing. Powerful wheel fenders flare outwards from the ‘X’ and wrap around the extremity of the vehicle, enough to create the entire volume. This simple and iconic gesture ties together the entire car and is unmistakably Pininfarina in its philosophy.

The ‘X’ is also at the heart of the concept’s graphics. The imposing front grille maximises cooling requirements for the fuel cells, while its contour and that of the charge lamp is a nod to the ‘X’. The wide, horizontal coast-to-coast lamps cap off the front fascia.

Pininfarina president Paolo Pininfarina had said at the Namx HUV unveiling: "Pininfarina is not only about pure design and style. It is also about innovation, user experience and bringing to life our vision of a sustainable future. The Namx HUV is simply at the heart of our DNA: inventing the best driving experience to infinite mobility, with style.”

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