Alpine Alpenglow Hy4: hydrogen-powered sports car with 340 hp makes its debut at Spa-Francorchamps.

Alpine has revealed the Alpenglow Hy4, a hydrogen-powered sports car with which the French brand aims to develop technology for future road and track models.

First unveiled at the 2022 Paris Motor Show, the Alpine Alpenglow Hy4 serves as a true manifesto of the brand’s future design and sustainable innovation directions. It made its debut on Friday at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, where it will perform a series of laps on the iconic Belgian track, which will host the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, a race in the World Endurance Championship, tomorrow.

The Alpine Alpenglow Hy4 rolling laboratory, powered by hydrogen, was designed as a competition car, based on a carbon LMP3 chassis. Under the carbon hood is a developmental 2.0-liter engine, with 4 inline cylinders and a turbocharger, producing 340 horsepower and running on hydrogen, specifically diatomic molecule H2 gas, with direct injection at 40 bar pressure and water injection to reduce NOx emissions. It can reach a maximum of 7000 rpm and is coupled with a sequential competition gearbox, with a centrifugal clutch. The performance is comparable to its gasoline equivalent, with a top speed of around 270 km/h. With three tanks, the Alpenglow stores hydrogen in the form of gas (2.1 kg each) at high pressure: 700 bar. The tanks are located in the side pods and behind the cockpit, in ventilated compartments isolated from the interior. A pressure regulator reduces the pressure from 700 to 200 bar, before lowering it to 40 bar, with direct injection into the combustion chamber.

The Alpine Alpenglow Hy4 will be present at various sporting events, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, showcasing the development of a new hydrogen-powered V6 engine that Alpine is working on.

This engine is set to replace the existing four-cylinder engine of the Alpenglow by the end of this year and it will likely be with this new V6 that the French brand will participate in the 2027 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first year in which the iconic endurance race organization will allow the use of hydrogen-powered sports cars.

“Since the creation of the Alpine Alpenglow concept car, presented in Paris in 2022, we have been eager to fulfill the promise made with such a unique project: to take it to the track. This is now a reality. The Alpine Alpenglow Hy4 can now demonstrate all the performance visually suggested by the original concept car: a true racing car, with a visual and acoustic expression that will surprise,” emphasized Antony Villain, design director of Alpine.