Winner at Pikes Peak: Electric Ford

Article by Tobias Selerit

Electric cars have won the legendary Pikes Peak hill climb several times.

At the 2026 event, Romain Dumas claimed overall victory driving Ford’s dramatic Super Mach-E prototype to the summit in 8 min 18 sec. Over the 12.42-mile / 20 km course, which features 156 corners, the average speed was an astonishing 90 mph / 144 km/h!

The Super Mach-E carried number 125 to celebrate Ford’s 125 years of racing. Henry Ford entered the first competition in 1901. Ford also competed in the inaugural Pikes Peak Hill Climb back in 1916.

At 150 mph / 240 km/h, the Super Mach-E produces more than 3,000 kg / nearly 7,000 lbs of downforce! That’s why the rear wing mounting pylons are so massive. The higher the car climbs on a hill, the less downforce there is because the air becomes thinner.

The car resembles a Mustang Mach-E.

Pikes Peak is motorsport at its most extreme; it tests both the machine and the driver to the limit. The finish is at an altitude of 4,300 m / 14,110 ft and the air is so thin up there that the driver, taking the corners at maximum speed, feels like he is breathing through a straw. The driver’s heart rate rises to around 190 beats per minute. It is a race where split-second decisions have to be made while the car is travelling at top speed close to the edge of a cliff.

The power of the Pikes Peak Ford comes from three STARD electric motors, each delivering more than 350 kW, for a combined output exceeding 1,050 kW. Ford has used the same motors for several years in a row: on this very Mach-E (2025 class winner, second overall), the SuperTruck (2024 overall winner) and the SuperVan (2023 class winner, second overall). The first prototype built in 2022 used even four motors with total peak power of about 1,400 kW, but engineers concluded that three motors actually provided all the power needed.

The battery has a capacity of 50 kWh. Under braking, the motors can charge the battery with a power of up to 710 kW!

The victory crowned Dumas with the title “King of the Mountain” for the sixth time and was his third overall Pikes Peak win since switching to electric cars in 2018.