The implementation of hydrogen fuel in motorsport is accelerating as Extreme H, an off-road series from the organisers of Extreme E and Formula E, prepares to make its debut in 2025.
A recent announcement stated plans for Extreme H to become the first hydrogen off-road FIA World Championship in season two, marking a huge milestone for zero and low-emission technology in racing.
Extreme H will introduce a new bespoke off-road car, developed with some of the key partners from Extreme E including constructor Spark Racing Technology and battery supplier WAE Technologies.
Several characteristics of the Extreme H vehicle, which is gearing up for its first off-road test later this year, draw on lessons learned from the all-electric Odyssey 21.
‘At the beginning, when we started talking about the H car, we thought it would be just an evolution of the E,’ Spark motorsport director Pierre Prunin tells Racecar Engineering. ‘But we wanted to improve everything.’
Many of those improvements are based on redressing fundamental design elements of the Odyssey 21, such as its two-seater configuration.
According to Prunin, this is a hangover from a preliminary brief that Extreme E events would be held with two people sharing the cockpit: one navigating and the other driving towards checkpoints, Dakar Rally-style.
Spark is developing the Extreme H with central driver positioning, which will probably make passenger rides difficult.
The organisers eventually opted for a ...