With electric automobiles popping up like dandelions across the landscape of American driving, it's no surprise that they will be part of the field at the 89th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 26.
The latest entrant in the Electric Division is professional racer Chad Hord (Felch, Michigan), who will be driving a stock 2011 Nissan Leaf at Pikes Peak, with its high response 110 hp, 80kW AC synchronous electric motor capable of delivering speeds as much as 90 miles per hour.
The all-electric Nissan Leaf was named the 2011 World Car of The Year at the New York Auto Show on Thursday last week.
The Leaf, which went on sale in the United States in December and is also available in Japan and Europe, beat the BMW 5-Series and the Audi A8 for the top spot.
Hord's competition on the mountain this year is the returning Electric champion, Ikuo Hanawa of Japan, who will drive his Concept two-wheel drive 2010 Custom Summit HER-02 model again this summer.
His Yokohama tire equipped EV won the Electric Exhibition class with a time of 13:17:575, a 93-second improvement over its time from 2009. That mark shattered the previous Pikes Peak EV record, set by Jeri Unser in 2003, by 65 seconds.
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which began in 1916, is America's second oldest motor sports race behind the Indy 500. The race is staged on a 12.42 mile course with 156 turns. It begins at 9,390 feet and ends at the famous mountain's 14,110 foot summit above Colorado Springs.
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