Revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September, the Mission E study stunned the public with its looks and tech, opening a new chapter (in concept form) for the German car manufacturer.
From the get go, it was understood that it would (eventually) get the green light, with the final production-spec variant compelled to see the light of day by the end of the decade.
With concept cars, nobody expects the final product to stay 100% true to the original design, although Porsche CEO Oliver Blume, speaking to Top Gear at Geneva, says otherwise,=.
“The external design will be very similar. We have to fulfill certain conditions and change some things. It’s not easy but we will do 500km range and a 15-minute charge. We have the technical ability to do it, the hard part is doing it on a whole vehicle.”
“And it’s important to transfer all the driving emotion of a Porsche to the electric vehicle. We can’t do an electric vehicle that’s branded Porsche if it doesn’t fulfill what a customer expects from a Porsche. You can drive the 918 Spyder in EV mode, and that’s how it will be to drive the Mission E. It transfers what we learn from motorsport.”
The Mission E concept has a total system power output of over 600 HP (440 kW), sprints from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.5 seconds and boasts a 500+ km (310+ miles) range.
The problem, however, is that the car requires 800-volt 150kW chargers in order to recharge in 15 minutes, and an infrastructure doesn’t exist, but Porsche has a plan.
“It’s important we have a solution to that. We need standards. We’re in contact with Governments and other manufacturers. We now need to invest in a charging network in Europe, the US and China.”
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