Faraday Future will climb Pikes Peak with its FF 91 electric car

Faraday Future announced this morning that its FF 91 electric car will be participating in the 2017 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

The electric automaker will run the FF 91 in the exhibition class with a "beta-level development vehicle." That means we're talking close-to-production components, software, vehicle weight and specification. Fortunately, those specifications are looking pretty beefy out of the box with 1,050 horsepower on tap from its electric all-wheel drive system and four-wheel steering and torque-vectoring. That should help nicely with the Race to the Clouds' 4,720 foot climb and 156 turns. 

Extreme climbs are often a challenge for electric vehicles' thermal management systems, but EVs have at least one massive advantage over gasoline cars. Electric motors don't suffer from the same high-altitude, thin-atmospheric power loss as internal combustion engines because they don't have air intakes.

"The hill climb on Pikes serves as the ideal setting to further develop the electric propulsion system and supporting thermal systems of FF 91," said Nick Sampson, Faraday Future's Senior Vice President of Research and Development. "Testing the performance of FF 91 in real-world conditions sets the bar even higher as we bring the vehicle to market in 2018." 

The point of this stunt is to prove that its upcoming electric vehicle can handle the rigorous conditions of the Hill Climb and to demonstrate its engineering to the public. FF is also kicking off a new video series that shows how it tests that engineering. 

FF claims to be the first "EV OEM" to participate in the Climb, but it's not the first automaker and the FF 91 won't be the first electric car to do so. Nissan campaigned a stock Leaf back in 2011 and the race has an entire Electric Division with modified and stock classes.

Holy crap, Faraday Future finally unveiled its first electric car!

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