Diesel-electric hybrid is the first ever to wins Le Mans endurance race
For the first time in its 80-year history, the 24 Hours of Le Mans field of endurance racers was led at the start by an electrified hybrid drive sports car. And 24 hours after the start of the France-based endurance race, it had also taken the checkered flag. It wasn’t just any hybrid, though: the Audi R18 E-tron Quattro is driven by a new power system that employs a turbocharged diesel engine driving the rear axle and an electric motor at the front. The R18 E-tron took nearly two seconds off the qualifying time of last year’s conventionally powered pole sitter. The achievement marks Audi’s seventh Le Mans pole in eight years, since it introduced clean-burn turbo-diesel injection technology to endurance racing.
The R18 E-tron hybrid raced for 24 hours and even beat out other non-hybrid R18 racecars for the outright Le Mans victory.
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