Toyota sets new electric ‘Ring record

"To achieve a new lap record at the first attempt, and by such a huge margin, is a great achievement and I am very proud to see TMG's name in the record books."

So said Rob Leupen of Toyota Motorsport GmbH, as he announced that his company's electric supercar, the TMG EV P001, driven by Jochen Krumbach, had blitzed around the Nürburgring in 7m 47.794s to set a new lap record for an electric car. The old one, if you're interested, was set earlier this year by the Peugeot EX1. It was 9m 1.338s.

But Toyota didn't just want to stomp the Peugeot into the ground, it wanted to prove the credentials of its electric technology in the fires of hell; namely, the Green Hell, as "in motorsport there is no more extreme circuit than the Nürburgring."

The EV P001 is built on a Radical chassis and features two electric motors to produce 375bhp, 590lb ft of torque and a top speed of 162mph, and the whole thing weighs just 970kg. In fact, it produces so many torques and so much power that Toyota will begin selling the tech in 2012 for use in "single make electric motorsport series".

A series, we imagine, bereft of discernible sound, as Leupen confirmed: "It was an amazing sensation to watch the electric vehicle fly past, with only the sound of wind rushing past and tyres squealing." Road-legal tyres, no less.