Toyota plugs in an electric race car for Pikes Peak

This year's Pikes Peak hill climb may turn into a debutante ball for electric race cars, as today Toyota revealed it will attempt the route in an experimental EV, joining last year's overall champion and a few others. It'll be a quiet day on the mountain, as you can hear below -- but how fast can they really go?

Toyota says its Pikes Peak charger unfortunately named the TMG EV P002 will use a Radical racing chassis combined with an updated version of the battery-motor combo that set the EV record for lapping the Nürburgring last year. The Toyota sparked that run in 7 minutes, 47 seconds -- equaling the pace of stock Lamboghini Murcielagos and Chevrolet Corvette ZO6s -- and Toyota says the new version will hit 149 mph, thanks to the 469 hp from its dual electric motors.

Toyota shared this video of the car doing a few laps at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, which offers none of the altitude changes the EVs will have to navigate this year. Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima remains the favorite to win the race, because he's Monster Tajima, and Rhys Millen always makes a strong showing as well. But this year's race may be less about which driver gets to the top fastest than what he used to do so.