It’s the Goodwood Festival of EV Speed! We profile the electric stars of this Pommy power-fest led by one manic Ford F150

“The fastest time only counts if it’s making noise and smells…”

That’s one of the few non-sweary comments from the bile-filled and pissed off social media masses in response to another EV winning Goodwood Festival of Speed’s Timed Shoot-Out this year.

Ford’s mad 1044kW Supertruck with three electric motors, piloted by now four-time Shoot-Out winner Romain Dumas, completed the famed UK hill climb course in 43.22 seconds. That shaved 0.76 seconds off his 2024 winning time in Ford’s equally bonkers 1050kW electric Supervan 4.2.

And many petrol-preaching motorsport faithfuls were not pleased; some of their comments I’ll include later in this story.

The Ford Supertruck’s a completely bespoke prototype build with all the aero and downforce, and pretends to bear some resemblance to an F-150 Lightning pickup. It has already triumphed in the far more arduous Pikes Peak hill climb.

The winning Goodwood run is well worth a watch:

Thing is, Goodwood’s something of a “traditional” motorsport venue. You know, the right crowd and no crowding, hay bales, lunch on the Range Rover’s tailgate and jolly tales of Stirling Moss in his pomp.

Nothing wrong with that… in fact it’s rather unique and lovely.

It does mean much of the crowd would prefer some chap with a double-barrelled surname and a bowtie to win the damn thing in something a bit more, well, combustion-y. 

Not an EV sounding like a wailing vacuum cleaner, then. And the calls for an EV-only class at Goodwood seem to make sense, if nothing else because the gulf in times versus petrol cars is already vast.

Electric racers are seemingly unbeatable by their very nature, to the point where it’s near impossible to see a combustion vehicle hold a lap record over a hill climb course or single race track lap.

With decent race rubber on, a racing EV’s instant and massive torque make them supremely ideal for rapid launches and quick corner exit speeds. Poor old petrol hasn’t a chance.

Fastest car ever up the Goodwood hill climb is the McMurtry Spéirling EV, piloted by Max Chilton, in a time of 39.08 seconds.

Watching it in action is literally and scarily unbelievable, so here you go:

If you still love the theatre of an ICE car, this year’s overall top ten up Goodwood’s 1.86km hill were all of the petrol-sucking variety, bar our fully electric champion.

Second place went to another ex-F1 pilot, Scott Speed, in Subaru’s 500kW/920Nm Project Midnight. It, like Ford’s Supertruck, was placed in the “Modified Specials” category, but the EV proved almost two seconds quicker up the course.

Third place was a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, fourth a Shadow DN4 sports car and fifth a V8 Supercars Holden Commodore – all race machines. 

A Koenigsegg Sadair’s Spear (unobtanium price-wise) was fastest in the Production Road Cars class, four seconds behind Ford’s be-winged electric Supertruck.

The Shoot-Out was entertaining enough, but so was the anti-EV bile from public comments on social media sites.

“A microwave is quicker than a grill, but I know which tastes better,” was a refreshingly clean one. 

Then there was “zero soul”, “EVs have killed the fun”, “sounds like an electric drill”, and many more with words found in the darker corners of the English language.

For balance, plenty of commenters were deeply impressed with Ford’s EV Supertruck, and that hill climbs are meant to be about pure speed, so it’s a deserving victory.

Electric vehicles as race cars look set to continue on their polarising ways, but it’s obvious that in hill climb events, the future winners will only be EVs.

So, now let’s turn to the other EV stars of Goodwood in 2025, courtesy of ourt London-based European correspondent, who had the good fottuen to be on-hand to take all the action in this year.

Alpine A390

The Renault owned performance brand is already committed to a zero-emission future and this year it has launched its most important EV yet, the Porsche Macan-rivalling A390. The sharp suited SUV certainly looked the part and has already been locked in for a launch in Australia in either late 2026 or 2027 and will introduce an advanced triple motor powertrain with 345kW and 808Nm.

Alpine A290 Rallye

Still not confirmed for our market is Alpine’s pocket rocket, the A290. It looks like huge fun grabbing plenty of dirt up the hill, thanks to its hydraulic hand brake. What it lacks in power, the still peppy 160kW A290 looks like it makes up for entertainment behind the wheel.

BMW Vision Driving Experience

Quad motors, 1000kW and towering 1800Nm of torque – the Vision Driving Experience is nothing short of BMW’s manifesto for the next M3 and we think it looks incredible. The rear-biased handling was also very evident although. BMW has yet to reveal all its advanced chassis tech and we’re all in for an agonising wait until 2027 when we see the car this wild concept signposts.

Denza B5

BYD’s luxury and premium brand Denza was everywhere at Goodwood, with the brand seemingly outspending many of its Euro rivals when it came to its pop-up brand palaces. The B5 could be the car-maker’s most important model when it heads Down Under. Powered by a plug-in hybrid 1.5-litre powertrain that produces 505kW, it might not have been the quickest up the famous hill climb but more importantly early indications suggests the Toyota Prado rival should have what it takes off-road.

Honda Super EV Concept

While we should have been pumped by the scenes of the reborn Prelude tackling the climb, it was the pint-sized Super EV Concept that piqued our interest at the festival. Built to fight the Hyundai Inster, Honda wouldn’t tell us what powered its baby EV, but judging by the evidence its wide arches, sticky tyres and lightweight alloy wheels presented, it looks like a fun, affordable, great to drive Honda EV is on the way.

Jaguar Type 00

Making another high-profile debut at Goodwood was the Type 00. This was the EV concept that spearheaded one of the most divisive rebrand campaigns in modern history. But even after all the furore has subsided, in the metal the new Jag EV still has the power to shock with its imposing monolithic shape. Remarkably, with the Bentley EXP 15 now on the scene, the big Jaguar is the better-looking of the two. But it still looks a million miles away from production, when we expect designers to water most of its wildness down for public consumption.

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra

One of the fastest EVs up the hill, SuperTruck aside, was without doubt the unhinged Xiaomi SU7 Ultra that was always nothing but a blur from a spectator’s point of view. It’s no wonder, featuring a triple-motor powertrain the four-door hypercar produces 1139kW – more than a Bugatti Chiron. It’s capable of hitting 100km/h in just 1.97 seconds, 0-200km/h in an astonishing 5.97 seconds and reaches 300km/h in a wild 15 seconds. Throw in a huge aero package, carbon ceramic brakes that can pull an incredible 2.3g and we’re amazed the Chinese brand’s first-ever car didn’t have a crack at becoming the fastest car up the hill.