Faraday Future climbs Pikes Peak 23 seconds faster than Tesla Model S

Pikes Peak isn't your average shakedown test-track. It's long, it's complex and it's dangerous. But Faraday Future went there nevertheless, and it walked away with a record.

Faraday Future's FF 91 blazed through the 12.42-mile track in 11 minutes, 25.083 seconds, becoming the fastest production-designed EV to do so. The previous record holder was a Tesla Model S, which took some 23 seconds more to complete the 4,720-foot ascent.

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"We're proud of our time, but this is about the quality of our propulsion system more than just a one-time race," said Pete Savagian, vice president of powertrain and battery systems, in a statement. "Our focus was on repeatability -- to reach the peak without overheating the vehicle, and to be able to do so again and again."

While the FF 91 is still a prototype (a "beta," as Faraday Future calls it), its hardware and software was production-ready. Of course, judging by the video below, the interior was stripped and caged for safety's sake. The lightly modified Tesla Model S that claimed the production EV record before had zero factory support, whereas this vehicle was under Faraday's watch the entire time.

In fact, Faraday Future claims the Pikes Peak run will directly help its production version. "We were able to identify key battery pack relay and system seal issues that will directly result in improvements in the production process," said Robin Shute, Faraday's principal engineer and the driver for its Pikes Peak run.

Then again, this presumes that the FF 91 will actually make it to production. Its factory in Nevada is still not ready, or even remotely so. If it does get to that point, it should offer up 1,050 horsepower and a 0-60 time of 2.39 seconds. Its 130-kWh battery should provide a range of 378 miles by EPA measurement standards, which would make it the king of EVs in terms of single-charge range.