Porsche Mission E Delivers 800 Volt Shock To Tesla

Tesla may have had the luxury all-electric sedan space effectively to itself for some time, but Porsche has a striking wake-up call for Elon Musk. The German marque revealed its take on the segment, the Porsche Mission E, at the Frankfurt Motor Show today, currently a concept but undoubtedly previewing just what the company has in mind for its next electrification steps.

In the case of the Mission E, that means over 600 hp from an all-new drive system, with two motors – borrowing tech from the Le Mans winning 919 hybrid – delivering 0-62 mph in under 3.5 seconds.

Thanks to a new 800 volt charging system, Porsche says the Mission E could sufficient juice for around 249 miles of driving in just fifteen minutes. A full charge, meanwhile, is expected to be enough for 310 miles.

The charging port itself is in the front wing, accompanied by what the company calls its "Porsche Turbo Charging" with a display for system status. If you've not got an 800V supply then regular 400-volt charging stations can be used, and like the Audi e-tron quattro concept there's inductive charging.

On the outside, the whole thing is just 4'3" tall and uses a body made of aluminum, steel, and carbon fibre reinforced polymer to keep the weight down. The battery is slung low under the passenger compartment to keep the center of gravity low too.

Porsche turned to carbon for the wheels, but unlike many EVs these aren't skinny little things. In fact, the Mission E gets wide tyres on 21-inch wheels at the front and 22-inch at the rear.

Added to that is Porsche Torque Vectoring, along with all-wheel steering.

Inside, there are four single seats and some odd instrumentation, with Porsche replacing its traditional gages with OLED versions. These round virtual dials – Connected Car, Performance, Drive, Energy, and Sport Chrono – also use eye-tracking, pulling the relevant controls into focus depending on where the driver is looking.

Parallax graphics take into account the sitting position and the movement of the driver to adjust the virtual angle of the instrumentation, not to mention also making sure that the wheel never blocks things like speed. Holographic controls and gages in the center stack respond to gestures – grasping means select; pulling means control – and there's an iPad app for remote access.

Porsche hasn't been entirely serious, though. A camera in the rear–view mirror spots when the driver is in a good mood and then shows that as an emoji in the instrumentation. Useful? Probably not, but the graphic can be shared on social all the same.

Porsche isn't saying what production plans it has for the Mission E, though it's hard to imagine that the electric sedan isn't previewing a Model S competitor for some point down the line. Likely to make more of a splash is the 800 volt charging system, however, which could address one of the lingering pain points of electric cars in one fell swoop.

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