Extreme H: Are Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles Ready?

The FIA Extreme H World Cup in October of 2025 was the world's first hydrogen powered motorsport event.  

An entire grid of cars featuring hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technology raced through some of the most demanding conditions imaginable in Qiddiya City, Saudi Arabia. 

Looking back on the race, hydrogen electric enthusiasts are wondering when a larger roll out is coming after the inaugural event. Extreme H is expected to evolve into a full FIA world championship, like Formula E, going forward. But is the technology ready for that?

Extreme H Founder Alejandro Agag said after the race in 2025: “With hydrogen there’s also a lot of myths, the car is going to crash or it’s going to blow up. But we had rolls, we had crashes, yet you can see that hydrogen is perfectly safe.”

The FIA Extreme H World Cup in Qiddiya City

In the 2025 race, the cars went through a series of time trials, head-to-head drag races with soaring jumps and intense wheel-to-wheel racing on a demanding desert course over six days.

Molly Taylor, Winner of the Inaugural World Cup alongside teammate Kevin Hansen, representing Jameel Motorsport, said: “There were so many unknowns going into the first Extreme H round, the track itself put big demands on the car, and despite its huge size and weight, it felt even more like a race car. It's a very raw motor sport!”

A first of its kind hydrogen fuel cell system was fitted to a 2,200 kg racecar, The Pioneer 25, and sent over jumps big enough to register 17 G upon landing. 

How safe are the cars?

Mark Grain, Extreme H’s Technical Director, says: “I’m very pleased to say that after our drivers consistently put them through a pretty tough time, including a rollover at speed. We experienced zero safety issues - it’s an incredibly robust car.

“The first reaction from many people when we talk about hydrogen vehicles is to first ask about safety, particularly fire safety. We had zero safety issues over six days of fierce competition and the average road car will never see more than 10% of the forces the Pioneer 25 was subjected to.

“As other racing series continue to explore adopting hydrogen technology, the FIA Extreme H World Cup has already demonstrated that hydrogen fuel cells are robust enough to mix it in the rough and tumble world of motor sport.”

How does the FIA support hydrogen?

The FIA’s Extreme H Technical Manager Vincent Gaillardot says: “As with every new category and technology in motor sport, we are working well in advance to define and implement the safety standards we need.”

Part of the process in having the car fully FIA homologated involved specific FIA crash testing procedures. This meant that while the Pioneer 25’s hydrogen fuel cell technology finds its origins in existing technologies, it needed to be rigorously tested to satisfy the FIA’s own safety criteria.

Vincent says: “There are specific requirements for hydrogen vehicles, things such as H2 detector sensors, specific crash tests for the survival cells and a full failure mode and effects analysis. All added together and it’s clear that we have applied the same rigorous standards for this new technology as we have for all of our categories.”

How reliable are hydrogen racecars?

The fleet of nine Pioneer 25 vehicles, including Extreme H’s own test vehicle, covered a total of 550 km over the race week, all without failure in dusty terrain and temperatures that regularly reached nearly 40°C.

Mark says: “We did not have a single powertrain failure over our entire event.

“At the World Cup, we also had eight teams, meaning eight sets of engineering brains that scrutinised not only the performance but also the operation and reliability of the race car - this was on top of the 3000 km of testing run before the cars were given to the teams.”

The future of automotive innovation

Vincent put the event into the global perspective of technological development. “Motor sport is the best laboratory to accelerate research and development and push boundaries to the limit,” he says. “This is relevant for new technologies and especially when we focus on clean mobility, hydrogen is a key part of that.

“The FIA Extreme H World Cup starts this journey with hydrogen gas and fuel cell technology, but we are looking at a technically diverse future that can be open to liquid hydrogen and combustion hydrogen engine technology. 

“What really drives the direction we take will be relevance to the wider automotive industry, we need to give OEMs the opportunity to showcase their expertise and develop their own innovations that will have a direct benefit to the consumer automotive world.”

Mark says: “We’re excited to showcase the incredible capability of hydrogen technology, and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with the FIA and global brands to build a technical roadmap that can deliver valuable lessons for the future of automotive innovation.”