Toyota and its European motorsport arm TMG are constantly honing and refining the EV P002. Back in August they set the fastest lap time around the Nurburgring for electric cars, and now they’ve bettered themselves by shaving over 25 seconds off that time, setting a new record of 7mins 22.329 seconds.

That is an extraordinary performance for an EV, but then it’s not an ordinary EV. The P002 is a full-blooded racing car. It also holds the electric record for Pikes Peak hill climb. The car has 350 kW of power (a little less than 500 hp), and an enormous 900 Nm of torque.

With that much go-juice, and a Radical-based chassis, the car is ought to be incredibly fast. We hope Toyota channels this know-how into their production electric cars and venture into the world of electric sports cars. They are already working with Tesla, which also hints at their desire to make such a thing.

Ludwig Zeller, TMG General Manager Electrics and Electronics: “Since our Nürburgring record last year, we have developed our electric powertrain to deliver more power, more consistently, over a longer distance by managing the temperature of batteries, motors and inverter. Pikes Peak was a clear illustration of the improvements and we have now reinforced that at the Nürburgring. But this achievement is not only about on-track performance; we are also very proud of the DC Quick Charger which again provided a reliable power supply in a remote location. This is an aspect of electric motorsport which has not been discussed at length but it is very significant; electric race cars need to be charged and it is a challenge to have the right infrastructure at race tracks, particularly temporary street circuits. Together with our partners at Schneider Electric, we have developed a solution to charge a race car literally anywhere in the world. This, along with the TMG EV P002 powertrain, represents a major step forward for electric motorsport.”