Alpine thinks hydrogen will play a major role in tomorrow’s car market and it’s turned its 2022 Alpenglow concept into a fully drivable Alpenglow Hy4 prototype to prove how serious it is about the fuel. Now offering seating for two, instead of just one, the subtly reworked supercar will make its debut at the Spa 6 Hours this weekend, where it’ll run demonstration laps, before doing the same thing at Le Mans in June.
Despite what the hypercar styling and
fancy carbon chassis might suggest, the Hy4 only makes 335 hp from a
2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine, but Alpine says that’ll be
upgraded to a V6 – again, fueled by hydrogen – when a second iteration of the
prototype is revealed at the back end of the year. Together with water injected
to cut NOx emissions, H2 dihydrogen is squirted directly into the combustion
chambers under 40 bar (580 ps) of pressure, from three tanks (one either side
of the cockpit and one behind) where it’s held at 700 bar.
The inline four spins to 7,000 rpm and
Alpine says gives the Alpenglow performance equivalent to a petrol-powered car,
including a 270 km/h top speed. Although this engine is adapted from
an existing Renault/Alpine ICE motor to run on hydrogen, the coming V6 is being
designed from scratch with hydrogen in mind.
Alpine says it’s focusing on
hydrogen-fuelled combustion power rather than hydrogen fuel-cell electric tech
because its specific power, reduced cooling requirements, and similarity in
feel and sound to a petrol-chomping combustion engine make it a good bet for
racing applications.
And though it doesn’t come right out and
say it’s taking the Alpenglow racing, Alpine does say that it’s “paying close
attention” to changes in racing regulations and reminds us that hydrogen cars
will be legal at Le Mans from 2027, and that even F1 could switch to the fuel
by 2031. Beyond that, it also hints that hydrogen could be a possible direction
for road-going sports cars, which ties in with hints dropped by Renault Group
CEO Luca de Meo last year suggesting Alpine was working on a hypercar.
