This week Porsche introduced their Mission E concept for the Frankfurt Motor Show, a 600-horsepower twin electric motor powered sport sedan with a 300 mile range and a claimed 15 minute recharge time. Pretty much everybody is calling it the future and a Tesla killer, but I’m wondering – if this the marque’s future, and considering how adverse its most ardent supporters are to change – is this also a true Porsche killer?
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Image: Porsche USA
Last Call: Porsche's Mission E, If You Choose to Accept it Edition
By Robert Emslie
Sep 16, 2015
Jeff Glucker
Porsche has done this for ages- pony up a concept and 10% will end up as a production car.
PORSCHE- THIS IS THE NEW PANAMERA! DO IT! V6, V8, Hybrid, Plugin. Damn!!
Yes. Also: Nobody’s saying this is going to be the only Porsche. And it’s truly gorgeous. Kill away, I say.
So, this happened. I finally rode the CL125 on Saturday. Still a few issues to address (such as the chain you can hear hitting the guard in the video) but…Yippee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-EtmD-y-XM
Cool. I love all the big trees, and the rural feel.
I live in the “historic” (old) part of a suburb that was originally a railroad town and has kept that small-town feel despite being swallowed up by the Kansas City metro area. As far as the big trees go, the vast majority of the KC area is like this. Unimpeded urban sprawl has its advantages.
Somehow I doubt Elon Musk is worried about this car, as cool as it is. Tesla kinda plays by their own rules, and I have no doubt their own battery technology will get better in the years to come.
Regardless, I, like James May, am not convinced that battery-powered anything is the right choice, long term. They’re not efficient to produce, have a limited useful life, and will always be dependent on the power grid, at least the way things are right now.
Isn’t the gasoline dispensing grid even more vulnerable than the power grid? At least electrical power can be produced locally, oil and refineries are not always close by.
Also, Elon Musk is probably less worried about the electro-Porsche than about Tesla refusing to be reliably profitable so far. Once Elon Musk moves on to the next toy (or dies, or whatever) how much longer will Tesla exist? Much like Aston Martin and Lotus, a company that can’t sustain itself financially is at the whim of its owners forever.
Taken from Car & Driver’s initial review of the 911, in 1965;
“The ads tell you a Porsche is “fun” to drive. Fun? A Mini-Minor is fun to drive because it can’t be serious; everything about it is incongruous—it defies all known laws of nature . . . and marketing . . . and gets away with it. The Porsche—any Porsche—is no fun at all; Germans aren’t much given to frivolity. Porsches are designed by drivers, for drivers, to be driven very matter-of-factly from Point A to Point B in maximum comfort, speed and safety. Form soberly follows function, and the cockpit of a Porsche is laid out to achieve just that end. The controls and instruments are efficiently positioned, and this economy of effort and motion is why Porsches aren’t tiring to drive. But fun? Porsches are for driving.”
So yeah, resistant to change as the PCA and their ilk are to Porsches changing, there’s always been a stoic German rationality to the things that electricity should lend itself to just fine. And even turbos on the base 911 shouldn’t be a problem, if they help the 911 get from Point A to Point B in an efficient, rapid manner.
Ever since someone referred to Porsches as P-Cars I’ve wanted to buy one just to name it Harvey.
http://welcometotripcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/25pekar5.jpg
I used to live in his neighborhood!
It’s not rear engined. It’s not air cooled. It’s not a pancake engine. It’s an SUV. It’s got four doors. Porsche’s been killing its brand for quite a long time, with no apparent penalty.
I suspect it is air-cooled and Porsche does have a history of electric propulsion driving all four wheels.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Lohner_Porsche.jpg