The Extreme E electric offroad racing series has annoucned plans to launch a hydrogen fuel cell-powered championship in 2024. Called Extreme H, it will race in the same locations as Extreme E, on the same days with the same sporting format.
A hydrogen fuel cell will replace the battery as the Extreme H car’s principal energy source, with the rest of the powertrain remaining unchanged from the current Spark-produced machines. The organizers state that green hydrogen sources will be used to fuel the cars and development is already underway, with plans for a prototype to arrive in early 2023.
Alejandro Agag, founder and CEO of Extreme E, commented, “Extreme E was designed to be a testbed for innovation and solutions for mobility. It has become increasingly clear to us that creating a hydrogen racing series is a natural evolution of our mission to showcase the possibilities of new technologies in the race to fight climate issues.
“Together with the current Extreme E teams we will decide in the coming months the best way to integrate the hydrogen-powered cars into the racing weekend. Two separate categories, full transition to hydrogen or joint racing, are all options on the table.
“Extreme E is an FIA International Series and our intention is to work closely again with the FIA and the Automobile Club de Monaco on the development of Extreme H. Sport is the fastest and most effective platform for driving innovation, and by using the existing Extreme E platform we can also utilize our transport, talent and operations to ensure we are minimizing footprint in the process. This effectively means we can have double the race action, with marginal additional impact.”