Volkswagen ID.R blitzes green record at 'the Green Hell'

Volkswagen has revealed during the past week that the company's record-breaking electric speedster, the ID.R, not only lapped the Nurburgring's 20.8km Nordschleife (northern loop) in the amazing time of 6:05.336, it did so using just 24.7kWh of electrical energy.

To put that in perspective, that's roughly 50 per cent more than the official consumption for a small EV like the Nissan LEAF to travel 100km on public roads. But while the ID.R was using twice as much energy to run one fifth of the distant – it was at an average speed of 204.96km/h. That's enough to place the ID.R ahead of a GT3 sports car on the same track.

Such was the performance of the ID.R, driver Romain Dumas was experiencing centrifugal forces of up to 3.49g under brakes, and the car reportedly topped out at 273km/h.

“Two major differences between the ID.R and the sports car I drive in 24-hour races are the considerably higher cornering speeds and the shorter braking distances,” Dumas observed.

The car's high cornering speeds and DRS (Drag Reduction System) contributed to both the record-setting speed and the optimised energy use. Dumas was actuating the DRS system to lower the rear wing for 88.82 seconds during the lap – up to 24.3 per cent of the time. DRS was most effective at reducing power consumption during acceleration and on long straights. Also helping the cause was the car's brake-energy recovery system, which provided up to 9.2 per cent of the energy consumed for the ID.R to complete the lap.