Another emblematic car manufacturer just announced it’s making the switch to electric.
In a recent issue of the German business magazine Manager Magazin, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume discussed the company’s future. He described a detailed roadmap which involves a battery-powered future for half of the company’s car fleet.
Of course, Porsche’s intention doesn’t really come as a surprise, especially considering the much-awaited Mission E car, Porsche’s first fully electric car. The Mission E has over 600 horsepower, going from 0–100 km/h in 3.5 seconds and 0–200 km/h in 12 seconds, clocking in at a top speed of 250 km/h. The concept was presented in 2015, with the car expected to go into production by 2019 at the Zuffenhausen plant. Porsche wants to sell some 20,000 Mission Es a year.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, Blume says. The biggest change will come around 2022 when, Blume says, around half of their cars will become electric. However, the bulk of this will be represented by the next-generation Macan crossover, which is Porsche’s best selling car. The non-electrical version sold almost 100,000 copies last year, and if the figures continue to add up, the Macan and the Mission E will make the bulk of Porsche’s sales.
With this, Porsche solidifies its sustainability track record, which has had its ups and downs.
For lovers of the company’s classic sports models, not much will change. Porsche hasn’t announced any plans to re-vamp its older hits and make them electric. The Mission E, however, will usher in a new age for fast, sleek Porsches, entering a market that’s already surprisingly competitive.
When we think of fast sports cars, we usually think of big, gas chugging engines, but Tesla changed all that in 2008 when they started producing the Tesla Roadster: the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. The Roadster was also a fast and sleek car, being able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) in 3.7 or 3.9 seconds depending on the model — almost the same as the Mission E. Since then, several companies have started work on electric sports cars, whereas hybrid sports cars are already well established.
