Hydrogen as fuel
The future of the combustion engine may well lie in the use of hydrogen as fuel. At least that’s what Alpine thinks. This is the Alpine Alpenglow Hy4: a racing car with a combustion engine that uses hydrogen.
You can use hydrogen in a fuel cell to generate electricity, such as in the Toyota Mirai, but hydrogen can also be burned. The latter can be useful to run combustion engines without causing harmful emissions. Toyota and BMW, among others, have experimented with this, but Alpine also finds it an interesting idea. This is put into practice for the first time with this Alpine Alpenglow Hy4.
The Alpine Alpenglow Hy4 is a follow-up to the concept car of the same name that the brand presented a year and a half ago. The big difference is that this is now a real endurance car that can actually take to the track. Today the Alpenglow Hy4 will make its public debut at Spa-Francorchamps, and tomorrow it will compete in the Six Hours of Spa.
The beating heart of the Alpenglow Hy4 is (the ‘4’ in its name says it all) a four-cylinder. A 2.0 that manages to pump out 340 hp with hydrogen as fuel. This appears to be a long-standing power source that has been adapted for hydrogen, but Alpine is also working on a V6 that has been specially developed for hydrogen. It should be located in an Alpenglow (probably called Hy6) before the end of the year. Parent company Renault Group emphasizes that hydrogen engines will eventually also become available to the wider public.
