SANYO announced that the EV racing car powered by SANYO Lithium-ion battery system has hit an all-time record for electric vehicles (EV) for the second consecutive year at the hill-climbing motor sports race, “2011 PIKES PEAK INTERNATIONAL HILL CLIMB”, held in Colorado, USA on June 26.

At the race, the EV racing car owned by “Team Yokohama EV Challenge”, a team from The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (Yokohama Rubber), participated in the “Electric” class, and finished in 12 minutes 20.084 seconds to beat last year’s all-time EV record of 13 minutes 17 seconds.

Yokohama Rubber has been participating in the race since 2009, with the aim to harmonize the pleasure of driving with the environment and to promote research and development for EV tires. They have used a SANYO lithium-ion battery system for their electric motors for each entry, achieving a new, all-time record for electric vehicles last year. This record was beaten by the team this year.

To power the EV, the battery system used combines 6,656 of SANYO’s 18650-size cylindrical lithium-ion batteries (Diameter: 0.7inch (18mm) x Height: 2.5inch (65mm)), typically used for consumer equipment such as laptop battery packs. The 18650-size cells offer the expected performance, and because they are readily available, only a short period of development for use with EV systems is required.