The Dakar Rally is among the most grueling events in all of motorsports, a 14-day sprint through the deserts and mountains of Argentina and Chile. It is a monumental challenge for any vehicle, and Alister McRae and Tim Coronel want to do it in an EV.

They’re developing an electric version of the McRae ProDakar 4×2 buggy that Coronel campaigned in this year’s Dakar, and they fully intend to be on the starting line in January.

We’re seeing more of this as electric vehicles of all kinds slowly move into the mainstream. Electro-gearheads have been drag racing for years, the sport of electric motorcycle racing is growing quickly and we’re seeing electrics enter Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb.

But Dakar is something else entirely. It’s a mad dash through 5,500 miles of remarkably forbidding terrain. Searing heat, towering dunes, gargantuan rocks and weather that would frighten a crab-boat captain are the norm.