Why can’t all Volkswagen ID.4s look like this?

Welcome to a Volkswagen ID.4 that’s been modified to compete in Baja-style desert racing. Oh hell yes.

Modified by Rhys Millen Racing for this week’s NORRA Mexican 1000 in, erm, Mexico, this ID.4 uses a stock powertrain with an 82kWh battery and a single 201bhp e-motor driving the rear-wheels. BUT it has some pretty serious suspension – VW says the ID.4 has “rally-style coil-over struts at all wheels and tubular lower control arms in the front and boxed lower rear links”.

Meanwhile the radiator has been raised two inches to improve the approach angle (overall this ID.4 sits two inches higher than standard), there’s additional 3/8-inch steel protection for the undercarriage and power electrics and 255/70 off-road tyres on 18-inch rims.

Inside Millen added a roll cage (obviously) and removed as much weight as possible by junking, well, pretty much everything. A few extra screens on the dash gives driver Tanner Foust and co-driver Emme Hall important info like battery temperature and so-on.

This year’s NORRA 1000 is running on a 1,141 mile route, 893 miles of which is off-road. To keep the car charged VW is using a biofuel generator to power a 50kW fast-charger.