VW’s I.D. R Pikes Peak Is Quicker Than An F1 Car!

To assert some dominance in the upcoming world of electric mobility, Volkswagen is taking on the iconic Pikes Peak hill climb in Colorado Springs, USA in an electric car. Not just that, the company also aims to set a new electric car record, which is currently held by Rhys Millen who clocked the climb in 8 minutes, 57.118 seconds in his e0 PP100 electric car back in 2016. The track itself is 19.99km of asphalt which starts at 2,862 metres above sea level, includes 1,440 vertical metres of climbing, 156 corners and at times, experiences sub-zero temperatures at the end of June. The I.D. R Pikes Peak has been unveiled in Alès, France and will take on the challenge on June 24, 2018.

Without beating around the bush anymore, let’s get to the car itself. The Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak is a twin-motor fully electric super sportscar, which has a total output of 680PS of power and 650Nm of torque. Dial in the fact that it weighs just 1,100kg and it is sure to launch like a rocket. Do you want the official time? Well, Volkswagen is aiming for a 0 to 100 kmph time of 2.25 seconds, which will make it quicker than both Formula 1 and Formula E cars.

The company also says that the "top goal" while developing the Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak was to achieve the ideal balance between energy capacity and weight, and not on maximum performance. But, unlike the production vehicles where the lithium-ion batteries are tuned for maximum range, here the aim was to extract the highest possible power output.

Driving the Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak on D-day will be the defending Pikes Peak champion, Romain Dumas himself. He has three victories on Pikes Peak and has also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice. The last VW to feature in this iconic climb was a dual-engined Golf, producing 652PS back in 1987. It will be interesting to see just how fast this game-like car goes in the real world.