WATCH: An aerial view of Volkswagen's historical record-breaking Pikes Peak run

Volkswagen made motorsport history at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on 24 June.

At the wheel of the 500kW, fully-electric I.D. R Pikes Peak, Romain Dumas defeated cars powered by conventional drivetrain technology and, with a time of 7min57.148 minutes, not only smashed the previous record for electric cars, but also bettered the all-time record set in 2013 by Sébastien Loeb (F) – by a full 16 seconds.

Sending out a powerful message

Just 250 days had passed between the announcement of the Pikes Peak project on 18 October 2017 and the record-breaking run on Pikes Peak. The unique demands on the drivetrain technology, batteries and aerodynamics make the I.D. R Pikes Peak an extremely ambitious project.

READ: Full EV monster: VW's electric ID R smashes Pikes Peak record

This only adds to the significance of the new record set by Volkswagen’s electric racing car, which as the sporty forerunner to the I.D. family – the range of fully-electric production vehicles that Volkswagen plans to launch from 2020 onwards – is sending out a powerful message with regard to electromobility.

                                                                              Image: Newspress

To assist you with your continued coverage, we are pleased to be able to provide a video, which shows Dumas’ full record-breaking, eight-minute run in the I.D. R Pikes Peak from a helicopter perspective for the first time.

Here is the video: