Volkswagen I.D. R Nordschleife EV Record In The Lens Of Fully Charged

Volkswagen I.D. R was equipped with “over 40 kWh battery” and consumed most of its energy in 6 minutes

The Volkswagen I.D. R’s bold record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on June 3 recently received from Fully Charged the coverage it really deserves.

Jonny Smith, in a talk with VW Motorsport Technical Advisor Willy Rampf, learned that the battery capacity of the I.D. R was “over 40 kWh“. The energy consumption must be huge as we assume that the battery was deeply discharged in just over 6-minutes (probably around 2 kWh/km or over 3 kWh/mile).

Romain Dumas’ time of 6:05.336 minutes (third try) at an average speed of 206.96 km/h (128.62 mph) over 20.8 km (12.9 miles) is the second best result ever. The Porsche 919 Hybrid EVO (5:19.546) however proves that there is still 45 seconds to gain.

To drive faster, racing EVs need to get more energy dense batteries to lower weight/add more kWh for use.

Soon, a special sprint version of the I.D. R with smaller and lighter, high-power battery pack will race at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (4 to 7 July) where distance and speeds are much lower.

Video Description via Fully Charged on YouTube:

Electric Record Nordschleife | Fully Charged

Volkswagen Motorsport offered Jonny and videographer Mark exclusive access to the ID.R’s testing and record breaking attempt at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

A testing day in May, followed by the record attempt on June 3 saw the modified 500kW 680PS ID.R (the car we featured breaking the record at the Pikes Peak hill climb in Colorado last year)

With French LeMans and four-time Nurburgring 24hr champion Romain Dumas at the wheel, the existing ‘green hell’ EV record (set by the NIO EP9 in 2017) was beaten by 40.564 seconds, with a final time of 6:05.336 minutes.

Even more impressive was the 206km/h average speed over the notorious 73-turn 20.8km long Nurburgring-Nordschleife.

The demands of this circuit on an EV were totally different to that of the high altitude Pikes Peak, hence why the battery management system and aerodynamic bodywork were changed (less downforce, more top speed) for VW’s somewhat local challenge.

This video follows the e-record and how the Volkswagen Motorsport and Bridgestone tyre teams worked closely in order to add another accolade to their EV flagship that is spending 2019 trying to set numerous new records. #challengeacceptID

Volkswagen I.D. R specs:

• 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.25 seconds
• two electric motors with a total of 500 kW of power and 650 Nm of torque
• AWD
• battery capacity “over 40 kWh“
• curb weight 1,100 kg

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