At this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, history will meet the historic. Launched in 1923, Le Mans is the world’s oldest long-form auto race, steeped in tradition, and for the first time in its life it will host a competitor running without any gasoline whatsoever. The organizers only just allowed the introduction of hybrid vehicles in 2008, starting with Audi’s R18 E-Tron Quattro, and just four years later they’re struggling with the addition of entirely petroleum-free vehicles. Green GT, the maker of the new, all-electric racer called the H2, hopes its latest vehicle can put the skeptics in their place.

The name H2 is no accident. While the phrase “electric car” generally conjures images of trunks full of batteries, conventional auto batteries were considered both too weak and too heavy to be useful for a long-haul race like Le Mans. A loose interpretation of the rules was needed to allow the Green GT vehicle to compete at all, as Le Mans regulations were amended in 2008 to allow new cars using batteries for fuel. The H2 uses hydrogen cells, however, reducing roughly two tons of batteries to a fuel cell that can fit in a sleek, modern racer.

Hydrogen fuel cells work essentially like batteries, except their reactants are consumed. The hydrogen fuel provides electrons, oxygen in the air acts as the acceptor, and the only waste product is water vapor. By using a consumable like hydrogen, the fuel cell is able to pump out rally-level power while keeping weight to a minimum. The H2 currently weighs just over two tons, in total.

Green GT’s racer is itself something to be drooled over by even the most hardened of fossil-fuelers. Though it uses just around $70 of hydrogen per hour of the race ($1680 over the 24 hours), its dual-200kW electric engines can apply a whopping 3,000 ft-lbs of force to the rear wheels. This makes it more than powerful enough, but the system does top out at 145 mph, a mere 65% of the top speeds sometime seen from its competitors. The Le Mans track rarely allows cars to reach such speeds, however, and if the H2 can achieve close to its top speed with regularity, it should easily keep pace.

Updated: The top speed of the Green GT H2, at least according to the technical data sheet, is “approximately 300 kph” — which equates to around 186 mph, not 145.

Green GT is not without experience in racing electric cars. It helped to bring the Citroen Survolt electric concept car to Le Mans in 2010, though it didn’t compete, and it has brought six electric racing vehicles past the concept stage. The company’s objective is make its cars 100% clean with hydrogen; to make all cars 100% clean with hydrogen. US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu recently reversed his stance on hydrogen vehicles, with a spokesman saying that “the cost of hydrogen production alone can be cut in half based on earlier projections”. The department concluded that hydrogen could be produced, shipped, and sold at the pump for less than $4 a gallon.

Whatever the success of its larger quest for hydrogen cars, Green GT looks poised to take the racing world by surprise in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, running June 22-23. Just taking to the track should be enough to silence at least a few of the traditionalists, but a high-ranked finish could change long-form racing forever.

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