THE PEUGEOT 9X8 - FROM A 51GB DIGITAL PROJECT TO A RACE-READY HYBRID-ELECTRIC BEAUTY
Things move quite fast over at Peugeot, especially when it comes to their hybrid-electric hypercar project. The car was famously created and designed from 51gb of files and data, the project had a fully digital birth. It was less than a year ago that the 9X8 was first unveiled to the automotive press and only five months since deciding to prepare the hybrid-electric car for war. This all-new Peugeot 9X8 wasn’t only developed to be a fast electric car, it was purpose-built for competition use in the highly competitive FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), a series that’s gaining popularity at an explosive pace. Initially true petrol engine fans weren’t too keen on seeing these new technologies replace their beloved gas guzzlers, but after seeing the outright performance hybrid-electric and full-electric vehicles are capable of, that thinking is changing. We truly are at a new daw in the automotive landscape. While the 2022 FIA WEC season is well underway, the aim for engineers was to have the Peugeot 9X8 get some competitive track time and so the car you see here will be joining the fun at the 4th round of the series that’s set to take place at Monza in Italy in July.
This wingless hypercar is certified to run in the FIA’s Le Mans Hypercar class (LMH), and it has all the right look and feel of the gas-powered predecessors. This sleek PEUGEOT 9X8 may just be a prototype for now, but it does have the best of Peugeot’s technologies incorporated to make it extremely competitive. All four wheels get power, the rear wheels receive their monstrous 520 kW (700 hp) from a conventional twin-turbocharged 2.6-litre V6 while a high-performance 200kW (270 hp) electric motor drives the front wheels. This motor uses a silicon carbide-based inverter co-developed with Marelli and it takes its charge from a high-voltage, 900-volt battery developed in conjunction with TotalEnergies/Saft. With nearly 1 000 hp of combined power propelling the 1 030 kg Peugeot 9X8, you can imagine the performance available. Also, that gasoline-powered V6 is fed with Excellium Racing 100 fuel, a 100% renewable fuel from TotalEnergies. A tree hugger’s delight!
The Peugeot 9X8 hybrid-electric racecar looks set to have a long career on circuit, as long as it’s not binned too bad. For the first race in Monza, a total of six drivers will attempt to take the futuristic car to a class podium finish. There will be two teams of three drivers, which means there will always be fresh eyes and hands at the wheel during the six-hour endurance race. The drivers are billed to be Paul Di Resta (GBR), Loïc Duval (FRA), Mikkel Jensen (DNK), Gustavo Menezes (USA/BRA), James Rossiter (GBR) and Jean-Éric Vergne (FRA). As soon as they’re allocated to their teams, the pair of Peugeot 9X8s that will be campaigned at Monza, thereafter at the 6 Hours of Fuji, Japan, in September, and the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November.
Take a look at the YouTube video that shows off what a company is capable of when they have the right team of men in white coats doing the R&D and the right people making sure the concept could be properly translated into reality: Peugeot 9X8 I The race-ready Hybrid Hypercar | Peugeot
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