Nissan introduces ‘Desert Camel Power’ to measure performance on sand

Nissan has created Desert Camel Power to help bring clarity to the endless discussions about the inherent off-road capabilities of SUVs in the Gulf market.

Nissan Middle East has recently announced a new concept to revolutionize 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.
Nissan has created Desert Camel Power to help bring clarity to the endless discussions about the inherent off-road capabilities of SUVs in the Gulf market. Horsepower alone is not enough to perform well in desert conditions, but just as horsepower can be calculated scientifically, so can Desert Camel Power, thereby raising the prospect of an at-a-glance indication of a vehicle’s desert fitness.
“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 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 maneuvrability, 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.”
It’s a simple concept and one that can be applied with relative ease to test vehicles in the conditions typically found in the Arabian peninsula.
Samir Cherfan, managing director, Nissan Middle East, said: “We are proud that the development work has focussed 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.”
He added: “The arguments have raged for decades among off-road enthusiasts about which vehicle is the most capable in the desert and what makes it so. Desert Camel Power is a means to scientifically measure and define a given vehicle’s fitness to take on the dunes, something which may at least go some way to settling those arguments. Desert Camel Power will also act as a touchstone for Nissan engineers going forward, as they seek, in particular, to build upon Patrol’s unrivalled capabilities as a conqueror of the dunes.”