The first edition of the green version of the classic Mille Miglia rally has been kicked off today at Brescia. Just like the original event, the Mille Miglia Green is also all about racing but in a green and environmentally friendly manner.

The race is open to Pure Electric Vehicle, Hybrids of all types and pre-1990 classics which are either electric or retrofitted with an electric drive. All participants will be driving across 250 kilometres over three days of the “Mille Miglia Green”. The first stage will start at Brescia on Friday evening. On Saturday, the tour will continue towards Milan. The route shall pass through several impressive locations along the road between Brescia and the capital city of Lombardy. On Sunday, the third and final stage will take the participants toward Lainate.

During the stages, the electric vehicles will will prove their full capacity – including over some areas of demanding terrain. Volkswagen is participating with and e-UP which was shown at Frankfurt recently. The car has a range of 260 km and is powered by a 83 PS electric motor. A 40 KW DC charger can charge the batteries to 80% in just 60 minutes.

The other attractions from VW at the Mille Miglia Green are a pair of classic Beetles retrofitted with an electric drive with a single speed gearbox. Their batteries are based on the e-UP. The modification has increased the weight of the Beetles to 1,280 Kg. However, the electric motor has enough power to accelerate these cars from 0 to 80 km/h in 8 seconds and push them to a top speed of 150 km/h.

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