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  Peugeot is already testing a 908 Hybrid 4 ahead of the 2012 sports car classic ...

Hybrid cars will compete for ultimate bragging rights at Le Mans in France next year.

Peugeot is already committed to fielding a hybrid version of its 908 racer in the classic 24-hour contest and now Toyota is being lured back to Le Mans to prove the pace of its petrol-electric hero cars. Either brand could spring an overall win, but with the strength of Audi and its diesels in recent years it's more likely that Peugeot and Toyota will be racing for a hybrid class victory. At first.

But Porsche is also looking at a hybrid program for Le Mans and other major brands, including Bentley, are considering racing once new rules - which put a new emphasis on efficiency - come into effect.

Peugeot is already testing a 908 Hybrid 4 ahead of the 2012 sports car classic, with drivers reporting solid reliability and extra punch from the performance hybrid package mated to a conventional diesel engine. The car completed more than 300 kilometres at Estoril in Portugal with former F1 drivers Nicolas Minassian, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz sharing the wheel.

Toyota is only just starting its program but is committed to Le Mans for the first time since unsuccessful efforts in the late 1990s before its abortive attempt a winning in Formula One. "Le Mans is unfinished business. Toyota went there in 1998 and 1999, got pole position both years, but didn't win," says Toyota Australia spokesman, Mike Breen. "Hybrid is the future of automotive technology, and Toyota has been the leader for a number of years. It's now taken the next step into performance hybrids so racing makes sense."

The Toyota racer (pictured below) will be a petrol-hybrid car for the Le Mans Prototype 1 category, the cars that compete for outright victory. Toyota supplied an engine to the Rebellion Racing team this year, just as Nissan backed the winning team in the LMP2 class, but this is a revival to rank with the GT-One program of 1998 and 1998.

The new car is also confirmed for several other major endurance events, most likely Sebring and Daytona in the USA, and the program will be run from Toyota Motorsport in Germany. It's the same site that was originally established by the late Ove Andersson for Toyota's winning efforts in the World Rally Championship, before it was upgraded for the Le Mans sports car project and then Formula One. Toyota expects its car to be unveiled in January before a full-scale test program leading up to Le Mans next June.