Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) set a new record for electric cars at the Pikes Peak hillclimb event in the US, taking more than two minutes off the existing electric car record.

The fact that the entire 19.9 kilometres of Pikes Peak is now paved no doubt helped, but the time of 10:15.380 was still impressive, as well as being good enough for sixth overall across all classes.

Multiple Japanese rally champion Fumio Nutahara was behind the wheel of the TMG ‘EV P002' racecar, which is a development of the street-legal TMG EV P001 that broke the electric car lap record at the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife last year. Nutahara’s time was 15 seconds faster than the nearest electric-powered class competitor, Hiroshi Masuoka, in a Mitsubishi i-MiEV Evolution

The TMG EV P002 is powered by two axial flux motors, which deliver a combined output of 350kW. The advanced electric motors also deliver 900Nm of torque through a single gear transmission.

The benefit of a fully electric drivetrain is that, without the requirement for induction air, it maintains full power even in the thin air at the upper part of the Pikes Peak course, which begins at an altitude of 2,862 metres and finishes at the 4,300-metre summit

Following devastating bushfires in the Waldo Canyon area of Colorado Springs in the US, this year’s Pikes Peak was rescheduled from its usual July date to August 7 - 12 for safety reasons.