VW will race its all-electric prototype in the Rocky Mountains
The "Race to the Clouds" is on and Volkswagen is putting its all-electric I.D. R Pikes Peak prototype racing car to the test.
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 24 in Colorado's Rocky Mountains is a 100-plus year tradition that races vehicles on a 12.4-mile route up to 14,115 feet above sea level with more than 100 turns to navigate. Volkswagen last competed in 1987 with a dual-engine Golf.
The German carmaker announced Monday that this year, it'll be racing the newest concept from its electric I.D. family. The self-driving, electric concept I.D. Vizzion was presented at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month.
The Pikes Peak sports car is part of the company's plans to bring 20 electric cars to market by 2025. The first I.D. cars are slated to be produced in Germany by the end of 2019.
The "Race to the Clouds" electric prototype division record is 8 minutes 57 seconds, a time that Volkswagen is determined to beat.
Topics Electric Vehicles
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
