![]() Built by GreenGT as part of a joint venture with the ACO, its ADESS LMP3-based H24 made its race debut last year and is evolved from the original LMPH2G that first appeared in practice sessions in 2019. MissionH24 has been at the vanguard for hydrogen motorsport, racing against conventional combustion LMP3 and GT3 cars in the European Le Mans Series-supporting Michelin Le Mans Cup series with its fuel cell racer. Photo by: Toyota Racing Projects currently under way Toyota gave H2 ICE-powered Yaris a public demonstration on Rally Ypres last year “For me the great thing with hydrogen is the same feeling as the normal internal combustion engine and you get the sound.” “Hydrogen is something really interesting, it would be great to have in motorsport,” enthuses Latvala. Toyota has also developed a liquid hydrogen-powered Corolla, but it was withdrawn from the opening round of the Super Taikyu season at Suzuka earlier this month following a testing fire. The Finn raced a Corolla powered by hydrogen ICE in the Fuji 24 Hours last year, while Toyota company president Akio Toyoda demonstrated a hydrogen ICE GR Yaris on a stage of the Ypres Rally last year. Toyota World Rally Championship boss Jari-Matti Latvala agrees. “I personally see a great future in hydrogen combustion and now the racer is speaking, because I love that with this technology you can keep the sound,” she says. The two-litre engine, which is anticipated to produce 300kW, is set to begin dyno testing soon and it is hoped to be sufficiently reliable by the end of the year to put into a physical car. Lohr, a DTM race winner with Mercedes in the 1990s, has overseen the creation of a hydrogen-powered ICE that is the first engine built in the history of AVL’s racing department, which until now has only sold software in its own name. There are emotive factors involved in a pursuit of hydrogen too. "For me the great thing with hydrogen is the same feeling as the normal internal combustion engine and you get the sound" Jari-Matti Latvala His view is shared by Green Corp Konnection (GCK), the team behind a hydrogen fuel cell assault on the 2024 Dakar Rally, and which concluded that hydrogen is the best-suited zero-emission alternative to fossil fuel for long-distance cross-country rally raids. While Niclot concedes that “it’s a huge challenge”, he is convinced that the zero-emissions solution for endurance racing “is a hydrogen option”. By contrast, hydrogen permits refuelling rates and range that are closer to conventional ICE cars and work in collaboration with battery technology used in EVs. Hydrogen and BEVs become the two clear approaches to satisfy this criteria, but as hydrogen consultant to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest Bernard Niclot explains, BEVs are “not adapted for endurance racing”, with four laps at the Circuit de la Sarthe reckoned to be enough to drain most batteries. While Formula 1 has pursued sustainable fuels for a net zero exhaust emissions and a hike in the electrical contribution of its powertrain for its 2026 engine rules reboot, the impending 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK means the push for zero-emissions motorsport is gathering pace. Photo by: AVL RaceTech Why hydrogen interest is gathering ![]() I personally think the ball is rolling already.”ĪVL Ractech has produced a hydrogen combustion engine which it hopes will be used to make club-level series more sustainable “You see this snowball gets speed and suddenly there will be the point where it’s just rolling and being big and there. “There’s a lot to do and a lot to have a look at, but it’s like a snowball at the moment,” says AVL Racetech motorsport director Ellen Lohr. Those who have taken the plunge aren’t blind to the challenges, but they are optimistic. This factor, and the limited number of commercially available options using hydrogen propulsion as a consequence, goes some way to explaining why Toyota is the only major OEM to have publicly demonstrated the technology in a motorsport setting so far. Through a process of reverse electrolysis, hydrogen meeting air is converted into electrical power, which uses up energy that contributes to making it less efficient than EVs using power stored in batteries. ![]() Significant hurdles must be overcome to fully win over sceptics yet to be convinced by factors of cost and safety, while battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have reached a point of technical maturity that seems a long way off yet for hydrogen, which is still in the early stages of being optimised.įuel cells are especially complicated. The first racing championship to run on fuel cell technology, Extreme H, will kick off next year, but there is little consensus on whether hydrogen will become widely used in racing, let alone at what stage.
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