If you had any remaining doubts about the performance and power of electric cars, then you should spend eight minutes (ok, just under eight minutes) watching the Volkswagen ID R smash the Pikes Peak Hill Climb Record yesterday. The all-electric race car not only set a new record for EVs, but set the fastest time ever, by any car, even ones with high-performance, gas-gulping, engines.

Pikes Peak is the second oldest race in the US, after the Indianapolis 500, and it is one of the world’s most iconic: 12.42 miles of 156 twists and turns rising nearly 5,000 feet in elevation.

The previous record, eight minutes and 13 seconds, was set in 2013 by Sebastian Loeb in a Peugeot 208. That car had a 3.2 liter, twin turbo, V6. The fastest electric car finished the race in eight minutes, 57 seconds.

The VW ID R made both times look like leisurely Sunday drives, setting a new time of seven minutes, 57.148 seconds. It’s a major affirmation of Volkswagen’s choice to run an electric car, powered by two motors and two battery packs wrapped around the driver’s cockpit.

Louis Yio/Volkswagen

The steep climb has traditionally taxed internal combustion engines, because the air gets thinner the higher they go; by the time they get to the top, the engines produce 30 percent less power than they did at the bottom. Electric cars don’t need to inhale any oxygen at all. That gives them a potential inherent advantage, but until now they haven’t been able to beat the best conventional cars.

“For Pikes Peak, to break records, you have to go to electric cars, I think that’s been proven now,” says Sven Smeets, Volkswagen’s motorsport director.

That’s not to say the team had it easy. It developed the car from scratch in just eight months, and built a low, sleek, machine that weighs less than 2,500 pounds, even including its heavy batteries. Power output is 670 hp, which VW says will get the car to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds (so, faster than a Formula 1 car). Everyone knows that electric drivetrains can perform insane acts of acceleration, thanks to Tesla and its ludicrous mode. The problem is that once the battery starts to heat up, which can happen after just a couple of full-power sprints, performance falls off. Fast.