As environmentally friendly as possible to China in order to push the electromobility of the future to the top once again at Tianmen Mountain: The Volkswagen ID.R also takes unusual, electric paths in terms of logistics.

With the freight train, the 500 kW (680 PS), purely electrically powered sports car will become the pioneering ambassador of the Volkswagen ID. Family - transported along the Silk Road to the foot of Mount Tianmen - together with the material needed for the record attempt on the "Road to Heaven".On its way through Poland to China, the ID.R is transported to its destination in its preferred manner: purely electrically. The two 40-foot and two 20-foot containers will cover a distance of around 11,000 kilometers in about three weeks. Volkswagen is saving approximately 85 percent of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and 93 percent of its sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions at the same time compared with air freight, which is the norm over long distances.

"With the ID.R programme, we want to show how exciting and powerful e-mobility can be," says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets. "The records at Pikes Peak, on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife or at the Goodwood Festival of Speed show how well our engineers have worked in this respect. However, they are not the only ones who contribute to this project with surprising and clever solutions; our logisticians also repeatedly come up with groundbreaking ideas. For the first time in Volkswagen's 50-year history in motorsport, a racing car is brought to its destination by freight train. This makes a considerable contribution toimplementing the record attempt on the Tianmen in the most environmentally friendly way possible".

A first for Volkswagen Motorsport: Transport by rail

On water, on land and in the air - Volkswagen has mastered a variety of logistical challenges with its racing vehicles in the World Rally Championship, at the Dakar Rally and also in the record attempts with the ID.R - for exampleat Pikes Peak - in spectacular races all over the world. Now, for the first time, a racing car including the material will be transported to its destination mainly by rail. Two 40-foot and two 20-foot containers have made their way from Hamburg to Chonqing in China - only the four containers' haulage from Hanover to Hamburg and the "last mile" to the foot of Tianmen Mountain are transported by truck. On the spot, the team is completely self-sufficient and ready to use with the equipment delivered - for example with an environmentally friendly, glycerine-powered generator, that not only charges the ID.R, but also supplies the entire crew with electricity.

Breathtaking scenery on the way to Tianmen

The four blue containers from Volkswagen Motorsport, which are transported by logistics partner Hellmann Worldwide Logistics to the breathtaking destination on Tianmen Mountain, already experience a remarkable journey on the way to their destination. After being loaded in Hamburg, they pass through Berlin and Warsaw, before being transferred to another rail system to a border station in China. There, the change back to the European rail system takes place and the journey continues via Chengdu to Qhongqing. The ID.R then passes through the Gobi desert and its foothills, numerous mountain ranges and lakes. The special cargo crosses seven time zones alone and covers about a quarter of the earth's circumference at a distance.

At the foot of the Tianmen, Volkswagen is dependent on the use of a generator to charge the ID.R and supply the team with electricity. For this reason, the choice was made a year ago to use a conventional-looking unit with glycerine instead of the usual diesel. This liquid, from a chemical point of view, is a sugar alcohol that is produced as a waste product, for example in the production of bio-diesel; which burns almost completely without any harmful exhaust gases or residues.