Inside Peugeot’s new Le Mans hybrid
Peugeot Sport is returning to endurance racing with an ingenious new hybrid. By Jake Groves
New World Endurance Championship rules have created two new prototype classes, both of them hybrid: LMDh and Hypercar. Peugeot Sport is the first major player to put its cards on the table by going public with details of its 2022 Hypercar entry, the Peugeot Hybrid4 500kW.
IS IT REALLY A HYBRID?
Yes, but not like any roadgoing Peugeot hybrid. It has a new 2.6-litre, twin-turbo, 90º V6, powering the rear wheels via a seven-speed sequential gearbox. There’s also a 900-volt battery with an e-motor driving the front axle.
‘We initially considered a single turbo, but that would have prevented us from achieving our engine’s centre of gravity target,’ says Peugeot Sport’s WEC powertrain director, François Coudrain. ‘A twin-turbo V6 block offers the best trade-off between technology, weight and packaging.’
The V6 makes 670bhp and the e-motor a further 268bhp, but the rules limit the maximum output to 670bhp, and ban the e-motor from being deployed below 75mph (except in the pitlane). So the car pulls away under petrol power, and when the e-motor joins in at 75mph the V6’s output is capped. The battery is topped up by regenerative braking during the race, but if at any point the battery is empty and therefore unable to power the e-motor, then the V6 can use its full potential.
The battery comes from Total subsidiary Saft, whose chief technical ocer Kamen Nechev says: ‘You need an extremely short charge time combined with high-capacity storage cells to form a package that enables maximum power to be delivered as rapidly as possible.’
WHAT’S LMDH ALL ABOUT THEN?
Whereas the Hypercar category has no rules on engine sizes – so long as they’re hybrid – LMDh teams will use a standardised hybrid powertrain. The power cap is the same as for the Hypercar class. There are also restrictions on weight and aero, intended to rein spending in. LMDh cars should cost no more than €1m before the powertrain is added, and they will also be eligible for the US-based IMSA sports car series.
Peugeot and Toyota are confirmed for the Hypercar class, while Audi and Porsche have confirmed they’ll join LMDh.