Hyundai wants to join Le Mans with Genesis

Watch out soon for Team Orange

The hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship is by far proving to be the most attractive racing category for car manufacturers these days. In the current season, the top-tier class already features 11 brands. Lamborghini is set to join next year but pretty soon, the list could grow even more.

Hyundai has announced its intention to enter WEC with its luxury brand, Genesis. And yes, they are gunning for the hypercar class under the LMDh regulations.

The Korean manufacturer wants to take the route that brands like BMW, Porsche, and Lamborghini have taken. In the LMDh class that Hyundai wants to enter, they get free reign to design the bodywork and put in their own engines. However, they have to adhere to a spec chassis from an FIA-specified chassis builder and adopt a 50 kW hybrid system.

Much like Toyota with Lexus and Honda with Acura, Hyundai is pushing its Genesis luxury brand towards the motorsport world through endurance racing as the performance N brand is already present in WRC and TCR.

Hyundai sees the Hypercar class as the perfect development platform for new mobility solutions harnessing performance and sustainability, a combination that Genesis intends to build into its road cars in the near future.

The Genesis entry is now subject to WEC Selection Committee approval. Once they are accepted, then perhaps we’ll know more about when they plan to make their debut, and which chassis are they going to use.