Nurburgring lap records are a matter of pride for auto manufacturers, so the German manufacturers may have taken exception to a Chinese firm holding a record on the home soil. The VW ID.R Nurburgring record, however, is quite interesting in that it shows the potential of electric cars.

A new record

The VW ID.R Nurburgring record was claimed earlier today by Volkswagen Motorsport for all-electric vehicles. The lap time of 6 min 05,336 seconds is over 40 seconds quicker than the previous record. VW Motorsport broke the news via its Twitter channel with the words:

6:05.336 minutes! New electric lap record by the Volkswagen ID.R on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife.

The previous quickest electric car to lap the 20,8 km Nurburgring Nordschleife was the Nio EP9. Learn more about this fledgling Japanese brand here. Incidentally, the VW ID.R currently holds the record at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb as well.

T-shirt Banner

Half the power

Interestingly, the VW ID.R Nurburgring record was set with far less power than the EP9 had at its disposal. In fact, the VW ID.R has 500 kW on tap whereas the Nio has double that output. To attain the time VW spent many hours honing the ID.R’s aero efficiency and power management. Learn a bit more about that process here. Though the Nio is considered a road car and the VW ID.R is a prototype that VW can change to whatever task it chooses to tackle.

The man behind the wheel, Romain Dumas, said after his record-setting run: “To be a record-holder on the Nordschleife makes me unbelievably proud. For me, this is the best and most difficult race track in the world. I want to thank the team at Volkswagen Motorsport, who have once again done a fantastic job. The ID.R was perfectly prepared for the Nordschleife and it was so much fun to experience the blistering acceleration and rapid cornering speeds.”

Record holders

VW Group vehicles now hold a few major Nurburgring records. The quickest production car around the Green Hell is a Porsche 911 GT2 RS MR, the ID.R hold the electric car record and the all-time quickest lap set by any car around the track is the Porsche 919 Evo.