Le Mans 24h Hydrogen Racing Category in 2027

Authors

T. Bouvet, Automobile Club de l'Ouest, Le Mans; B. Niclot, Win Innovation, Paris:

Year

2024

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

Since its creation in 1923, Le Mans 24h race has always been leading automotive development and race to road technology transfer. Since 2017, ACO is convinced that hydrogen will play a key role in future mobility solutions and is the natural good solution for a zero emission endurance racing. ACO has defined its ambition: create a hydrogen category for Le Mans 24h and World Endurance Championship, able to win against gasoline and hybrid cars. This is a huge challenge and is unique in motorsport. Part of this program has already been presented in Vienna 2017 and 2021 symposiums.

In 2023, ACO has announced that it will open its competition, not only to Fuel Cell, as originally forecast, but also to H2 Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) technology.

This presentation explains the rationale supporting this decision. We show that this opening of the rules is attractive for manufacturers: the result is that some of them have already presented concept cars to join ACO’s H2 category, and are working hard to reach the goal of 2027.
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ISBN

978-3-9504969-3-2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.62626/wzu1-5iby Copy link