Porsche claims 500 km of range between charges
In an obvious dig at Tesla, Porsche says its performance is repeatable. Eagle eyes will note that a “Ludicrous” Model S can still outgun the electric Porsche. However, unlike the much-ballyhooed Tesla, which often shuts the party down after one brief — if hellacious — burst of acceleration, Porsche says the Mission E can rattle off brisk acceleration runs until the battery runs down. No wonky thermal management here.
In fact, Porsche says its EV can do an entire lap of the famed Nordschieffe circuit at full pin and still not revert to fail-safe mode. The silence left hanging, of course, is that other, lesser EVs have a propensity to shut down proceedings when subjected to maximum warp factor.
Porsche claims some 500 kilometres of range. Now for a few caveats. For one thing, that’s 500 km according to Europe’s New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) regulations — a notoriously optimistic figure on something closer to 400 km by the EPA’s reckoning, maybe 300 km in tougher Canadian weather.
Also, Sachs refused to state specifically how large the batteries are — I guess Porsche is still trying to retain some mystery for the launch next year — but it appears that the Mission E is carrying about 90 kilowatt-hours of “usable” liquid-cooled lithium-ion beneath its seats.
The company also claims that 400 km of range can be recharged in about 15 minutes. That’s thanks to a new high-voltage — 800V! — architecture. The long-promised 350-kilowatt charging system is dubbed, you guessed it, Porsche Turbo Charging. The same caveats as above apply; the 400 km promised are by the NEDC standard, so apply about an 80-per-cent fudge factor.
Nonetheless, when delivered, those 350-kW charging stations should be the most powerful — so powerful, in fact, that the cables are liquid-cooled — chargers available. Porsche says it’s rolling out a comprehensive charging network throughout Europe and North America and promises that every Porsche dealer will have at least one of these “Turbo” chargers.
That 800-volt architecture has some other advantages as well. For one thing, says Sachs, by almost doubling the voltage, Porsche was able to reduce the number of amperes running through the system. Amps generate heat. Heat requires thicker wires. And bigger wires weigh more — a lot more, as it turns out — and are tough to bend around body panels and dashboards etc.
Raising the voltage, therefore, reduced the weight of the Mission E — it will still weigh in the 2,500-kilogram range — and allows a lighter, more flexible wiring loom.
All those volts and kilowatts also allow more regenerative braking. According to Top Gear, because the battery runs at 800 V and can withstand 350-kW input, the Mission E can use even more regen braking (i.e. reversing the polarity of the electric motors so they act like brakes). TG even quotes Stefan Weckbach, vice-president in charge of all of Porsche’s BEVs (battery electric vehicles), as saying that Porsche’s regen braking is so powerful that the electric motor — now acting in reverse — can apply enough stopping force to the rear wheels to activate the Mission E’s ABS system without engaging the rear discs. Powerful stuff.
Whether, in fact, production versions will be so forceful is not yet been determined.
As to how much the Mission E will cost when it comes to market in 2019, so far Porsche is only giving hints. One spokesperson said it would cost about the same as the Panamera Hybrid — which would put the price around $120,000.
Another said the Mission E’s MSRP could range anywhere between the Cayenne and the Panamera. That could mean anything between $75,000 and $200,000.
An educated guess, based on the premium that the Porsche nameplate engenders in virtually every segment it competes in, would be around the $140,000 mark.
We’ll probably have to wait at least another 12 months to find out for sure.