Faraday Future has today announced that it plans to take part in the 2017 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Not in a specially-built, custom electric buggy, but instead in its big, luxury, ‘built from the inside-out’ electric SUV dubbed FF 91.

“The hill climb on Pikes Peak serves as the ideal setting to further develop the electric propulsion system and supporting thermal systems of FF 91,” explains Faraday’s Nick Sampson.

Nick is the senior VP of R&D at the tech company, and reckons a run at PP “in real world conditions sets the bar even higher as we bring the vehicle to market in 2018”. Just to be clear, Pikes Peak climbs 4,720 feet from the starting point, and features 156 turns. Not exactly a quick run to the supermarkets before charging up again.

And again, let’s remind ourselves that this is the same FF 91 that senior designer Richard Kim previously told TG has been designed for “someone who’s never had a driving licence”. It’s a car that’s been designed from the inside out, to accommodate the Uber generation. Perfect, um, for a run at one of the most challenging hill climbs on the planet.

Propulsion though, was never an issue for the FF 91. Because it packs a powertrain with 1,050bhp, mounted into a scalable chassis, and is apparently capable of accelerating from 0-97kph in just 2.39s. It’s also got four-wheel-steering. And torque vectoring. And packs active aero too.

It’ll run in the Exhibition Class at PP, using an FF 91 development vehicle that’s as close to production as possible – it uses representative hardware and software as the cars you’ll (hopefully) soon be able to buy. In 2018. Robin Shute – who serves as an engineer at Faraday Future – will the man tasked with piloting a big, luxury four-seat SUV up the hill.

It’s certainly a test alright. Anyone got any more appropriate venues to develop a 1,050bhp luxury SUV? Baja, perhaps?