Let’s take a look back at the recent Nürburgring lap records. The Lamborghini Huracan Performante ran 6.52.01 in 2016. It was beaten by a Porsche 911 GT2 RS in 2017. And the current record holder is the Aventador SVJ. With such an epic battle between manufacturers, Volkswagen plans to break the electric lap record at the ‘Ring.
As you probably know VW Group owns Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Bentley, and even Ducati. Each one of those brands will retain their historic place in the motoring world, except VW itself. A press release earlier this week announced that VW’s lineup will be going all electric. The blistering record set by their ID.R at Pike’s Peak was followed by buying a 20% stake in electric supercar builder Rimac.
For a quick refresher, the ID.R has AWD thanks to 2 electric motors. It weighs less than 2,500 lbs and offers 670 horsepower. This allowed Romain Dumas to be the first driver to reach the top of the mountain in less than 8 minutes. Since he also has 4 victories at the historic German track, the car is being prepped for another historic run.
Since it won’t be grasping for grip at 14,000 feet, the aerodynamics can be dialed back to a sensible level. The standing electric record was set in when EP9 was clocked at 6:45.90. If the ID.R beat over a century of records in Colorado, imagine what it will do with a home field advantage.
Much like Ford has done with moving EV design to Michigan Central Station, VW has announced a new headquarters for their electric future. It’s not in Berlin, or even in Germany. This massive investment will come to fruition in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This follows the historic partnership between Ford and VW that was announced at the Detroit Auto Show. The high-voltage future looks promising, so stay with us for all your electric supercar news.