Yokohama breaks previous Pikes Peak EV record

For a second year in a row Team Yokohama has set a record at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The Yokohama Rubber racing team’s electric vehicle set a time of 12:20.084 at this year’s event, which took place on June 26; Team Yokohama shaved 57 seconds off its record 2010 performance.

In 2011, Team Yokohama came to Colorado armed with an electric racing car fitted with prototype Yokohama BluEarth tyres which, the tyre maker shares, incorporate “various environmental technologies for better fuel-efficient performance” along with “high levels of gripping power, enabling stable driving on the course’s difficult combination of tarmac and gravel surfaces.” The vehicle used by Team Yokohama was also equipped with lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo Electric and an AC induction motor from US company AC Propulsion. It was driven by Ikuo Hanawa. Yokohama Rubber has participated in the race for three consecutive years now; its stated reasons for participating in the famous American hill climb race are “for the purposes of harmonising driving enjoyment and environmental concern and advancing its research and development of EV tyres.”

Now in its 89th year, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is the world’s best-known hill climb. Racing to the 4,301-metre summit, participants cover a 20-kilometre course beginning at the 2,862-metre level.