Volkswagen ID.R aims for Tianmen Mountain record

With the continual developments in electric drive technology, there should, by now be little doubt regarding their capabilities. Electric vehicles will perhaps always face challenges in term of being exciting, particularly on the aural front, though Volkswagen aims to showcase further what an all-electric performance car is capable of.

To that end, the German automaker is bringing its ID.R all-electric racer to the Tianmen Mountain in China in September. The ID.R has form – the purpose-built racer took the EV lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in June with a time of six minutes 5.336 seconds, and the all-time Pikes Peak hill climb record a year before that with a time of seven minutes 57.148 seconds, in both instances driven by Romain Dumas who will once again take charge of the ID.R for the Tianmen Mountain run.

“With the ID.R, we want to prove once again that electro-mobility is not only fun, but also extremely efficient and capable of high performance. Electro-mobility is emotive and fascinating; this is the clear message the ID.R is sending,” said Volkswagen Passenger Cars board member in charge of sales, marketing and aftersales Jürgen Stackmann.

Why Tianmen? Volkswagen hopes that the record attempt run on the mountain will become a benchmark for electric vehicles to compete against, and the Chinese market is very important to Volkswagen and the firm wants to fully develop its electro-mobility strategy in the country; an aim that the ID.R’s run will help the company towards. It is also a special challenge that the team could not test for, either on simulator or on-site.

The racer will also serve as an ambassador to future production models such as the ID.3, which will see its debut at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. What is Stackmann’s assessment of the development of electro-mobility? “It is great fun developing ideas and strategies with a brilliant team at the cutting edge of e-mobility to convince our customers – and those who will hopefully become them – that electric vehicles are the answer to the challenges of our time,” he said.

Electric vehicles offer driving pleasure, advantages and features that could only be dreamt of a few years ago, he noted, while offering more space with comparable exterior dimensions as well as being quiet, efficient, economical and inexpensive to maintain, along with offering car designers ‘completely new opportunities,’ Stackmann added.

Stackmann also strongly believes that electric vehicles with a long range and plenty of space can be fun to drive. Certainly, the ID.R race car’s powertrain cannot be carried over to a road-going production car like-for-like, “as it generates 500 kW and thus far more than most customers want.”

Having said that, electric drive allows for great acceleration, says Stackmann, ‘but it is something you have to feel for yourself, otherwise you won’t believe it.’

GALLERY: Volkswagen ID.R Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record run

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