The debate between battery lovers and hydrogen enthusiasts is one of the most heated within discussions about decarbonizing transportation. Opinions are almost as polarized as they are on climate change itself. But whether you get your power from a battery or a hydrogen fuel cell, you’re still driving an EV with electricity. On World EV Day, electric SUV racing series Extreme E is promoting the message that hydrogen has a role worth exploring in the decarbonization and electrification of transportation and energy.
Extreme E has been using hydrogen to provide off-grid electricity generation for a while now. The race in Neom, Saudi Arabia in March was completely powered by Green Hydrogen from Enowa, the race in Scotland used a different Green Hydrogen system from GeoPura, and the first race in Sardinia was the first to deploy Kaizen’s technology that uses methanol as the hydrogen source, solving issues with the transportation and availability of Green Hydrogen in gas form. Now, as the second Sardinia race weekend for Extreme E this season looms, Extreme E’s plans to create the first hydrogen motor racing series have hit a new milestone.
Not only will Extreme E become an FIA World Championship in 2024, but the hydrogen-powered Extreme H will debut in 2025, with a roadmap to becoming an FIA World Championship itself by 2026. “We will be the first FIA Hydrogen World Championship,” says Mark Grain, Technical Director, Extreme E. “We’re working with some great partners across all aspects of hydrogen technology, from fuel cell to support and R&D. Since the announcement, the interest has ramped right up across the board and not just in motorsports but outside as well.”
Although Extreme E events now run primarily on hydrogen, this won’t immediately be usable for the Extreme H race cars. Kaizen’s methane reformer system produces hydrogen at 20 PSI – a far cry from the 10,000 PSI that fuel cell tanks use to conserve space. “We’re looking at different options on that,” says Grain. “There is potentially a solution with Kaizen,” adds Andy Welch, Utilities Manager, Extreme E. This would involve compressing the gas supplied by Kaizen’s system. Extreme E is still exploring other options for fueling Extreme H, but the series will use standard automotive fuel cell and tank technology.
Extreme E also hasn’t decided how Extreme H will sit alongside the original battery-based series. It might run in parallel, or it might replace it entirely. “There’s been no call on that at the moment,” says Grain. “But we will have a prototype Extreme H car up and running within the next three to four months. Then we want to take an Extreme H car to a race at the tail end of next year. We will embark on a rigorous test program with the car early next year.”
So far, Extreme E has successfully promoted messages of sustainability, alongside equality between the sexes, but also that EVs don’t have to be boring. “People see an EV as a functional car,” says Grain. “But Extreme E has demonstrated that EVs can be rugged, tough, and exciting. They can go through water and big jumps. It’s a great way of publicising that EVs aren’t just for the school run and going down the shops. They can withstand harsh environments.”
The FIA World Championship status for Extreme E will help with this. “The credibility of the championship goes through the roof,” says Grain. “Once you’ve got that FIA support and backing, that also gives us a broader audience.” Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles arguably have an even worse reputation for lacking excitement than BEVs, as there aren’t any halo FCEVs like the Tesla Model S Plaid or Rimac Nevera, at least not in production yet. But Grain hopes Extreme H can have a similar effect on hydrogen’s image as Extreme E has for BEVs. “In the same way that we can demonstrate that EVs aren’t a mundane form of transport, that they can be rugged, tough, and exciting cars to drive and can operate in all these extreme terrain environments, we want to do exactly the same with hydrogen. We want to demonstrate that this is a fantastic option for the motor industry, mobility, and transport moving forward. That’s one of our huge goals with Extreme H.”
“The hydrogen fuel cell dyno tests have been going extremely well,” adds Grain. “We believe that, by the time we’ve signed off with all our track tests, the performance of the car will be at least the match of the Extreme E car. That is our target. We don’t want the Extreme H car to be any way a lesser racing car than the Extreme E car. We think that hydrogen can be part of performance vehicles as well. But we’re still in the early part of the journey.”
Grain argues that existing fossil fuel infrastructure providers will want to pivot into hydrogen, although in the UK at least there isn’t much sign of that happening yet. However, Green Hydrogen is attractive to countries that could be able to produce it from abundant renewable energy sources, such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia. “It’s a chicken and egg situation with manufacturers and infrastructure providers inching forward,” says Grain.
It remains to be seen how quickly this will take hydrogen into the mainstream, but Extreme E has already successfully shown its value for off-grid power provision, as a net zero replacement for Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) biodiesel. This hints at where hydrogen might gain the most value for passenger vehicle applications. “EVs face a huge infrastructure challenge because behind that you need the energy production in the country and the distribution grid,” says Welch. “Some countries are looking at hydrogen fuel vehicles as a viable alternative to electric vehicles because they have no electrical infrastructure to charge them. They would have to build it.”
“If you’re transporting hydrogen in a carrier fluid over long distances, as with the Kaizen technology we use for Extreme E, it becomes economically viable to build up a hydrogen fuel cell fleet nationally rather than an EV fleet,” concludes Welch. “There are a lot of these countries in South America and Africa. They’ve got huge natural resources in terms of sunlight or wind, so they’ve got the basis of an energy production system. They can make hydrogen and make it cheap. And then that can compete as a fuel for the trains, the trucks, and the cars.”
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