Image: Toyota Racing
Toyota has agreed to supply a hydrogen combustion engine for MissionH24’s next prototype, the H24EVO, and the number everyone will quote is 650 kW. The more telling number is the one missing from the announcement: a date on which this car turns a wheel in a race.
That is the argument here. The deal is a real step up for a project that has spent eight years proving a point rather than chasing a result. But read the releases closely and the shape is clear: Toyota is getting a second proving ground for liquid-hydrogen combustion, MissionH24 is getting credibility, and nobody has committed to a start line.
What was actually confirmed
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest, MissionH24 and Toyota Racing announced the arrangement at Fuji Speedway during the 2026 World Endurance Championship round there. The engine is based on a 3.5-litre V6 developed for motorsport. Paired with the prototype’s hybrid system, it is expected to make a maximum of 650 kW, which works out to roughly 870 horsepower. The H24EVO will carry liquid hydrogen in its tanks.
The project says that output moves the car closer to European Le Mans Series prototype performance, a step above the LMGT3-level target of its predecessors, the LMPH2G and the H24. Those earlier cars ran gaseous hydrogen through fuel cells. The H24EVO swaps that for combustion and a liquid fuel, which changes the whole engineering problem.
Why a combustion engine is the smarter bet
Fuel cells are efficient but heavy, and a racing prototype lives and dies by power-to-weight and by how quickly you can package it. A V6 that already exists as a motorsport engine comes with decades of know-how about cooling, packaging, mapping and durability. MissionH24 is not inventing a powertrain from scratch; it is adapting a proven one. MissionH24 technical director Bassel Aslan has pointed to efficiency as the key asset, because every kilo of liquid hydrogen on board has to last.
The unglamorous work is already under way. Engineers are defining the mechanical interfaces between engine, chassis and gearbox, plus the electrical architecture, controls and software. Anyone who has watched a new powertrain meet an old chassis knows that is where the schedule slips, not in the dyno room.
Who gains, and who carries the risk
This is my reading rather than something either party has said. Toyota showed its own TR LH2 Racing Prototype on the Le Mans circuit in June, built on the same chassis as its TR010 HYBRID Hypercar and driven by Kazuki Nakajima. Supplying an engine to the H24EVO gives it a second, independently run test bed for liquid-hydrogen combustion, under the ACO’s umbrella, without committing to a race programme of its own. Nakajima framed it as part of Toyota Racing’s “continuous pursuit of the possibilities for combustion engine development.”
For MissionH24, co-president Jean-Michel Bouresche called Toyota’s involvement a strong signal to the hydrogen sector. That is fair. A name that has just won another WEC manufacturers’ title attached to your powertrain does more for fundraising and regulators than another demonstration lap.
What the announcement leaves open
The releases say the H24EVO will “soon” begin testing with the combustion engine and liquid hydrogen tanks. They give no test date, no race entry and no season. Neither says whether this engine is related to the one in Toyota’s TR LH2 prototype, so treat any suggestion that the two are the same unit as unconfirmed.
The regulatory backdrop matters too. MissionH24 says the FIA has chosen liquid hydrogen storage for its future hydrogen prototype category, and the ACO has said it aims to introduce a hydrogen class before the end of the decade. A car with liquid tanks and a V6 is aligned with that direction. It is also a long way from a grid that is filling with conventional entries, such as the Hypercars McLaren is lining up for Le Mans.
One more thing to watch: the project describes the engine as delivering zero CO2. That is the headline claim, and it is worth holding to account on the test bench. Hydrogen combustion can still produce nitrogen oxides, so the interesting data will be what the H24EVO emits as well as what it saves.
The verdict
Watch for the first track footage and the first published lap data. A 650 kW prototype that can finish a stint on liquid hydrogen would make MissionH24’s case better than any press release. Until then, this is a strong engineering partnership with an empty calendar, and that is the part worth keeping an eye on.
Lead image: Toyota Racing
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