Sustainable Motorsport: Why Hasn’t The World Rally Championship Gone All-Electric?

Motorsport faces an even bigger dilemma over environmental pressure than the everyday car market. You or I might make the decision to go electric based on running costs, climate change concerns, and convenience. But a whole sport must think about what such a move does for arguably its most important stakeholder – its audience. Just before Round 13 in Japan, the FIA World Rally Championship held its first Sustainability Forum, detailing how the sport would meet its environmental goals while maintaining its popularity.

The decision concerning what to do about sustainability hasn’t been so hard for motorsports that are entirely new series, such as Formula E and Extreme E. These started out electric-only so are winning new fans rather than carrying old ones over. But existing series that have a long tradition must convince their current audience that any changes are an improvement. Formula 1 followers might remember the complaints when hybrid engines were first introduced. The brutal roar of a 2.4-liter V8 was replaced by the lawnmower whine of a 1.6-liter V6 hybrid in 2014, and fans hated it. They have come to terms since, but it’s a great example of the reaction a radical change can receive.

Motorsport has always seen itself as a testbed for innovation in transport technology, but in this time of transition, some manufacturers don’t seem to be sure which technology they should be developing. This has resulted in some curious decisions, with Audi leaving Formula E and entering Formula 1, while simultaneously aiming to be the most electric brand by 2025 with 20 models (it currently has eight). Mercedes has also quit Formula E, despite winning the most recent season and having a strong and growing range of EVs, most recently joined by the EQS SUV.

Another contrast is between World Rallycross (World RX) and the World Rally Championship (WRC), which to the uninitiated might seem like similar sports. While World RX has gone all-electric both in its main RX1E series and its secondary RX2E competition, WRC chose hybrids instead for its 2022 series. That doesn’t mean to say that WRC isn’t taking sustainability seriously so seriously as World RX. In fact, the FIA is expecting all its race series to put climate change on the agenda, and has created an Environmental Accreditation Programme with three levels. These consist of one star for “Basic Practice”, two stars for “Good Practice”, and three for “Best Practice”.

At the Sustainability Forum ahead of the WRC session in Japan, it was announced that the Forum8-sponsored race had received the two-star FIA rating. The teams have been tackling the carbon footprint of a travelling series in a variety of ways, for example Ford M Sport has been reducing the number of trucks that are taken to each event and using inflatable structures for servicing cars, which are much lighter to transport. The big issue is the energy consumption of fans attending. This is an area where Extreme E, for example, has innovated by being a virtual and broadcast experience from the outset, with very little attendance onsite.

If you look at the environmental impact of most motorsports, hospitality and crew transport are the biggest factors. Fuel usage is a relatively small contribution. So although the electrification of Formula E and Extreme E grabs headlines, the impact this has on consumer choice and technological development is far more important than its direct effects in terms of CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, fuel type selection is important, as it sends a message of intent – a prediction of where series organizers reckon road vehicle drivetrains are headed.

In this context, WRC’s selection of hybrid technology conveys a certain stance towards decarbonization. In a consumer market that is rapidly moving towards electrification, the race series is clearly backing an alternative route to sustainability that still involves combustion, by using synthetic fuels. According to Martin Popilka, CEO, P1 Fuels, WRC is now using 100% renewable fuels from his company. This is just one race series to use P1’s products. The Karting World Championship will also be for 2023, and then he hopes Formula 1 will by 2026. Popilka argues that EVs aren’t an entirely green solution anyway, citing the fact that across Europe only 20% of electricity comes from renewables, with the rest from fossil fuel, making EVs only zero emission at the tailpipe, not overall. The electricity generation still has a carbon footprint.

This is an oft-cited argument, although it’s a slight overstatement. In 2021, only 76% of Europe’s electricity came from fossil fuel, and this is likely to go down every year from now on. Fossil fuel use also varies a lot from country to country, with Scandinavia and France using much less than the average. The war in Ukraine will also act as an accelerant, creating a realization that Russian gas supply needs to be replaced, with renewables the most cost-effective alternative energy source.

P1 fuels aren’t fossil-based, instead using either ethanol from biomass waste or methanol generated from renewable energy, water and captured CO2. Of course, this is still a combustion fuel, so does emit CO2 and particulates at the tailpipe, but according to Popilka this is well below Euro 6 standards for both CO2 and NOx. The CO2 emissions equal what has been input at the start of the process, so the fuel is carbon neutral.

For motorsports that intend to stick with combustion, a synthetic fuel like P1’s does provide the opportunity to be more sustainable. However, P1 has wider plans than just competitive use. When I talked to him in Japan, Popilka also stated that P1 has a memorandum of understanding with a chain of fuel stations in Germany, meaning that hundreds of locations could be stocking it in the future. For starters, there are lots of classic cars and “exotics” that could be kept on the road in a carbon neutral way using a synthetic fuel, which can be a drop-in alternative to existing gasoline or diesel. In fact, P1’s 100% sustainable EN228-compliant road fuel was employed to power a single-cylinder, 6.5bhp 1904 Covert during the 2022 London-to-Brighton Rally.

Popilka sees his company’s fuel having an even wider reach than specialist users like this, however, and doesn’t consider EVs the only solution to decarbonizing transport. Synthetic fuel can be delivered via the existing pump infrastructure and used in vehicles without modification. But right now, it’s not cheap, costing 5 Euros a liter ($19.65 per US gallon). Popilka sees this cost dropping to less than half that eventually, but there is another complication.

Making synthetic fuels from the preferred method of direct air carbon capture and hydrogen generated from electrolyzing water is extremely energy intensive. In fact, the energy delivered to the car’s wheels currently requires about four times as much consumption during the process of production compared to battery-electric vehicles. To be viable, synthetic fuels produced in this way require abundant renewable energy and a ready supply of water. There are regions of the world where this could work, such as the trials taking place in Scotland’s Orkney Islands and in Chile. Popilka also cites Namibia as being an ideal location. But either way, while synthetic fuels clearly have a role to play somewhere in decarbonization – the versions being developed for long haul aviation could be essential – mainstream success for transportation has some hurdles to surmount.

However, synthetic hydrocarbon fuels might not be the only option for motorsport wishing to stick with combustion engine technology. The WRC event in Japan saw another alternative being trialed as well – hydrogen combustion. An H2-powered Toyota Corolla Sport has been competing in the Super Taiku race series in Japan, and at the WRC event a GR Yaris based on the same technology took part on a stage, driven by WRC legend Tommi Makinen. This is not a fuel cell car, which uses hydrogen to generate electricity that drives electric motors, but a powertrain that burns the hydrogen directly. The motor can be a modified fossil fuel engine, and could even be dual-fuel.

I talked to Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) team principal Jari-Matti Latvala in Japan about the hydrogen-powered GR Yaris his team was trialling at the event. For Latvala, engine sound is essential for a sport that often takes place in remote woodland and mountain roads, with individual cars tackling stages on their own. With sports like World RX, Extreme E and Formula E, the wheel-to-wheel racing negates some of the need for noise, but Latvala is concerned that for WRC too much would be lost for fans if the sport switched to near-silent EVs. Also, the length and gradients of some rally stages would tax the range capabilities of existing electric technology.

The current hybrid drivetrains powered by synthetic fuels have none of these problems, and even improve on what went before. The additional 130hp from the electric motor provides lots of extra acceleration when needed and some of the journeys between street stages are even completed in all-electric mode. But WRC will be reconsidering its options after the 2024 season, and hydrogen combustion is one of the possible replacements under consideration. According to Latvala, it would maintain the audible drama while emitting no CO2 and providing similar driving dynamics as before. However, hydrogen could also have range issues on some stages, because the current GR Yaris can only manage 30-40km of racing on a single tank.

This would also be an even greater impediment for hydrogen combustion to be viable in road transport. The tanks required just to go 40km take up a large amount of space in the car, and for more usable road range there would be precious little room for passengers or cargo. There would clearly be a lot of development ahead to make this technology viable for consumers. BMW experimented with it in its Hydrogen 7 from 2005 but ceased production in 2007. Synthetic fuel is a much more viable proposition. At least for motorsports, it provides an immediate way to make this aspect of competition carbon neutral while maintaining the combustion status quo. For wider applications, we will just have to wait and see. One thing is certain, though. The race is on to decarbonize the planet’s transportation, with the contenders already slugging it out through motorsport.