Say Hello To The ID R: VW's Mad, All-Electric Pikes Peak Car

With its new range of ID-banded electric cars due to go into production next year, VW needs an exciting figurehead to draw as much attention as possible. Wolfsburg has decided the best way to do this is with a mad electric prototype to take on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and it’s certainly hard to ignore: just look at the size of the rear wing!

First teased last year, VW has now revealed that its Pikes Peak challenger will be called the ID R, while also releasing these two new computer-generated images of the car.

Technical details are still frustratingly limited, but it’ll almost certainly be maddeningly powerful. It’ll need to be, if it’s to beat the 8min 57.1sec time - the current electric Pikes Peak Record - clocked by the e0 PP100 prototype and its seven motors.

VW’s last Pikes Peak entry came in 1987 with a bonkers twin-engine Golf, which was in with a shot of victory until a suspension failure disappointingly took it out of the running mere corners from the finish line.

Speaking about what is effectively the follow up, Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets said:

“It is about time we settled the score…The I.D. R Pikes Peak represents an extremely exciting challenge for us, to show what is possible with an electric engine in motorsport. The entire team behind our driver Romain Dumas is highly motivated to set a new record for electric cars.”