Peugeot Sport has confirmed that it will return to top-level sportscar competition in 2022 as part of the World Endurance Championship’s new Hypercar regulations.
The French firm will be building an LMH, aimed for entry in to the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in collaboration with oil firm Total.
The French manufacturer made the announcement ahead of this year’s endurance event, where company CEO Carlos Tavares is present as the honorary starter.
Peugeot’s last stint in the category came between 2007 and 2011 and it previously won Le Mans in 1992 and 1993.
Peugeot has started development on an all-wheel drive hybrid powertrain with a power output of 500 kW. It has opted to develop a car for LMH instead of LMDh due to ‘several criteria, one being that of a certain aerodynamic freedom. This makes it possible to incorporate, with the support of Peugeot Design, the aesthetic detail of the brand.’
“This category unites our entire company and all of our entities, with features and technologies similar to those of our production cars,” said Peugeot CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato. “Through this commitment, Peugeot is opening a new register, that of neo performance.
“We are coming back to endurance racing because we have the opportunity to work the sport in a different way, with the hybridisation of gas and electricity.
“Peugeot Sport is changing its identity and launching its label of electrified high-performance vehicles; Peugeot Sport Engineered with its first 508 model: 360 horsepower, 4-wheel drive and 46g of C02. This endurance program allows us to integrate ourselves fully into the transition of energies.”
Oil firm Total expanded on its role in the partnership
“We mark 25 years of close collaboration between Peugeot and Total but also of strong involvement in motorsport,” said Philippe Montanteme, Total Strategy/Marketing & Research Director.
“Competition, firmly embedded in our DNA, represents a real technical on-hands workshop for our respective brands. It is in these workshops that we can work together, in search of perpetual performance and efficiency, in order to share the best solutions and products from high-level sport to our final customers.
“The “Le Mans Hypercar” project provides us today possibilities for joint development on the entire energy system of the car; on the efficiency of our fuels – for all the competitors, as the exclusive supplier- or for the lube, specifically designed for hybrid vehicles.
“It will also allow Total and SAFT [battery suppliers] to study new battery solutions alongside Peugeot. Total is now a multi-energy company that answers to all mobility demands while maintaining itself as a pioneer. The “Le Mans Hypercar” embodies this perfectly.”
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