Another Guinness High Altitude World Record has been set! In a Volkswagen ID.4 GTX, Rainer Zietlow raised the record for all-electric standard cars to 5,816 m above sea level.
The journey began in Santiago, Chile. On April 21, 2022, Rainer Zietlow, the owner of CHALLENGE4 GmbH and world record holder, and his team left Santiago de Chile.
With a standard Volkswagen ID.4 GTX and a Volkswagen Amarok from GAMMA serving as the support vehicle, the team drove through Argentina and on to Bolivia. After one week, they reached the village of Quetena Chico, the base camp for the Uturuncu volcano. The ID.4 GTX has a net battery capacity of 77 kWh, providing a range of around 210 miles (340 km).
En route to the Uturuncu volcano, the team relied on Enel X Way’s charging infrastructure. In 2020, ENEL X Way, the project’s energy partner, set up wall boxes at various hotels every 300 kilometers (186 miles) along the route for the electric motorbike project "The Long Way Up" by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.
After the pandemic, the Quetena Chico community began restoring their former mining track to the two Uturuncu peaks. A mining company used the track until 1996 to mine sulfur at an altitude of over 5,800 meters. After that, it was used solely for mountain tourism. However, since tourists were absent during the pandemic, the track became increasingly dilapidated and was only passable up to around 5,000 meters.
Rainer Zietlow was the first person allowed to use the restored road up to the old mining area. On May 18, 2022, all preparations were finally complete, and the weather was favorable. At 7 a.m., it was time to go. The unsealed track was a real challenge for the production vehicle and its components. However, the technology passed this exceptional endurance test. After four hours and twenty minutes, Zietlow reached the end of the mine track in the VW ID.4 GTX, reaching the highest point of the track at 5,816 meters above sea level, as documented by two GPS trackers and altimeters.
"Our goal was to demonstrate that electric vehicles can perform well at high altitudes," said Rainer Zietlow. "An electric drive has an advantage at such altitudes because it does not rely on oxygen from the air." "I would like to thank the entire team, including Pedro, our Chilean cameraman; Álvaro, our Chilean photographer; and Cristian, our Chilean mountain guide, who have been with me for the past four weeks on this record-breaking project."
On May 23, 2022, Rainer Zietlow received the official Guinness World Records™ certificate from a Guinness World Records representative at the German Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, in the presence of the German Ambassador, Mr. Stefan Duppel. As has been customary since the founding of CHALLENGE4 GmbH in 2005, Rainer Zietlow is supporting the charity SOS Children's Villages with a donation following his world record drive — this time, the SOS Children's Village in La Paz.
