With Leoni on board: up the volcano in an electric car

Nuremberg/Quetena, 29 June 2022 – New altitude world record for electric vehicles: Professional long-distance driver Rainer Zietlow has scaled the Uturuncu volcano in Bolivia in a VW ID.4 GTX – thanks also to Leoni’s exceptionally failure-proof wiring systems.

The previously notarised and sealed GPS altimeters read exactly 5816 meters when Zietlow switched off his electric car just below the summit of the still active volcano after eleven days of driving across three countries. “Our aim was to show that electromobility is capable of high performance even at extreme altitudes,” Zietlow said.

The experienced long-distance driver and his support team had chosen a standard VW ID.4 GTX, equipped with, among other things, a Leoni wiring system, for their record-breaking journey. “No matter whether extreme fluctuation in altitude and temperature, whether a tropical or dry climate, our wiring systems – virtually the vehicle’s nervous system – must work reliably even under the most adverse ambient conditions,” Walter Glück, CTO of Leoni’s Wiring Systems Division, explained. “We are delighted that we could contribute to this extraordinary altitude world record with our technological know-how.”

Exceptional endurance test passed with distinction

Zietlow took four hours and 20 minutes in the VW ID.4 GTX from base camp in Quetena for his ascent of Uturuncu over unsurfaced roads. He had previously already personally driven the car from Santiago de Chile across Argentina through to the small community in southern Bolivia. Zietlow: “The technology passed this exceptional endurance test with flying colours.” It is already somewhat of a tradition for the professional long-distance driver that he also supports the SOS-Kinderdorf charity with a donation after each world record, this time in La Paz. More information about and images of this record-breaking trip can be found at
www.vwid4-highaltitude.com.

With its state-of-the-art wiring systems, Leoni is contributing to lowering the resource consumption of modern vehicles as early as the production stage – thanks to ever more elegant, more cost-effective architectures that help to save weight and space. And the Company already has a large share especially of the e-mobility market.