French racer Romain Dumas has set the new Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record, driving Volkswagen’s electric race car, the I.D. R Pikes Peak.

Prior to landing in America, the target was set for the 500kW I.D. R Pikes Peak to break the electric vehicle record at 8min 57.118sec, set by US driver Rhys Millen in 2016. However after the pre-runs on site, it was clear the I.D. R could achieve more than this on the 19.99km course with 156 corners. Dumas crossed the finish line in 7min 57.148sec, beating the previous all-time record of 8min 13.878sec by Sébastien Loeb in the Peugeot 208 T16. In addition, this is the only record in which the entire hill climb was completed in under eight minutes.

Volkswagen developed and built the race car in just 250 days. A veteran racer with trophies from all the big endurance races under his belt, Dumas had to get used to the electric drivetrain, but was impressed by his winning race car and the team he worked with to achieve the result.