Perhaps not one for plug-in purists, but this will excite the race fans out there and represents a significant step in the electrification of motorsport.

Whatever you think of extremely high performance hybrids – and Toyota’s Le Mans challenger with its 3.4-litre V8 coupled to a 500 kilojoule supercapacitor is certainly one of those – it’s pretty hard not to get a bit of a tingle on watching the TS030 Hybrid leaving the pitlane during testing at Paul Ricard race circuit in France.

As you’ll see, the car beautifully glides away from the pits in pure-electric mode and soon after, there’s a delicious explosion of power as the V8 joins the party.

There will be two of the Toyota Hybrids coming to Le Mans in June and it’ll be a real thrill to see how competitive they are. The 24-hours of Le Mans is, unsurprisingly, an endurance race through an entire day and night, where getting the most miles out of a tank of fuel is key to victory. As is the ability to lay down a bit more power now and then. Hybrids help with both.

Audi, the winner of an incredible ten of the last twelve Le Mans 24-Hour endurance races, will also be pitching up with two hybrid versions of its race-winning R18 TDi diesel. But no doubt wishing to hang onto its astonishing run of wins, Audi will bring a couple of conventional R18s just in case there are any problems with the hybrids.

OK, the plug-in purists amongst you might not be too happy with us giving up a web page to hybrid like these, but when the vast audience watching Le Mans live and on TV get to see these amazing racers cruise down the pitlane on pure electric, that’s got to be a huge boost for the electrification of motorsport. F1 cars could follow suit next year, too.

And technology that gets developed in the white-heat of racing does trickle down, maybe even to your Dad’s Prius.

Follow Toyota Hybrid Racing via its website, ToyotaHybridRacing.com