The German automobile manufacturer, Porsche, is determined to take on the electric Sports Car market with a brand new fully electric vehicle that is now set to be released sometime in 2019. The company announced that the production version of its Porsche Mission E concept, which is technically Porsche's first ever fully electric product, will become available before the decade ends.
Taking on Tesla
Elon Musk's Tesla Model S P100D is currently the product to beat when it comes to fully electric sports cars and Porsche is apparently up to the challenge. The company initially unveiled the Mission E concept at the 2015 Frankfurt International Motor Show and it seems like they are finally ready to build a production model for the public. According to the company, Tesla has put an immense amount of pressure on them to finally take a step forward towards an electric future and the Mission E is set to become the company's first excursion into fully Electric Vehicles. This is uncharted territory for its engineers.
Check out a preview of Porsche's Mission E concept in the video below:
Under the hood
The upcoming four-door electric coupe is set to sport a unique 800-volt drive system that generates up to 440 kW of power. The vehicle is also expected to have a range of somewhere around 310 miles on a single charge. As of this moment, the Mission E concept is only capable of reaching 62 mph from a standstill in just under 3.5 seconds, which is still far away from the Tesla Model S P100D's 2.28-second record. The Mission E is also capable of reaching a top speed of 124 mph in just under 12 seconds. With a few years of development still available, Porsche may be able to improve those numbers for the final production model.
Rapid charging
Porsche claims that it will at least beat Tesla in one aspect, namely its charging times. According to the company, its new rapid-charge battery booster should be able to charge the car up to 80 percent in just under 15 minutes. This blows Tesla's Supercharger system out of the water as its systems take more than 40 minutes to reach 80 percent. In just 15 minutes, Mission E owners should get a range of 250 miles, allowing for quick pit stops.
The Porsche Mission E is set to hit showrooms at the end of 2019. The company's chairman, Oliver Blume, also mentioned that the electric vehicle could be priced somewhere around $85,000, which is the same price as an entry-level Porsche Panamera.