Porsche Mission E And The Future Of Electrics
The Porsche Mission E is a curvaceous concept that is supposed to tell the world that the German prestige marque is seriously interested in alternative energy vehicles. The fact that it is a four door sedan is definitely a warning shot aimed above Tesla's collective head, so if the Germans do get involved and start producing machines like the E, there's a high chance that high efficiency electric vehicles might be the shape of things to come. What does that mean, exactly, and how far away are electric vehicles from becoming mainstream?
Tesla has cemented itself in the position of industry leader through multiple patents and a full range of production models. It has also complimented the cars with the necessary infrastructure to support them: 520 "supercharger" stations scattered across the US, employing around 3000 charging stations. These stations can provide 170 miles of range on just 30 minutes of charge, and the charging stations are distributed using a smart combination that makes sure you aren't stranded with your Tesla in the middle of nowhere (if you plan ahead, that is). So far, the major hurdles to electric vehicles developing into a full scale industry has been met and conquered by Tesla, namely the development cost of new models and finding a way to keep the cars juiced over long distances, which comes with its own significant costs.
Porsche has taken the fight to Tesla with the 800 volt power-plant, using two permanent magnet synchronous motors that operate at twice the voltage of current electric vehicles. That translates to about 600 horsepower. The motors are unique in design, and provide multiple acceleration bursts under full power within short intervals, unlike the Teslas in the market which require a certain amount of time in between full-power bursts in order to operate properly. The lithium ion batteries are laid out in similar fashion to Tesla: full length front to back, underneath the car and in between the two axles which provide advantageous weight distribution and thus better driving dynamics. They can also be nearly fully charged (80%) in an extremely short 15 minutes, and on full charge the Mission E can do 300 miles, beating out the Tesla Model S PD85D (240 miles). Unlike the Tesla, however, the 800 volt charging required for the Mission E remains the biggest disadvantage that Porsche needs to overcome, ignoring the power advantage that the 762 horsepower Tesla P85D has.
Porsche's Mission E is a natural evolution and market application of the hybrid and electric technologies employed by their race teams at present. Since the majority of energy and safety technology evolution trickles down from motorsport, it seems worthwhile encouraging other brands to participate in green motorsport so that more manufacturers can use this trickle down knowledge to enter a lucrative new market.
It is definitely great news that more well recognised brands are moving towards Electric Vehicles (EVs). However, the one major hurdle for any second player after Tesla is the charging station infrastructure. The costs of setting up independent charging stations for each brand is now the biggest barrier to entry for car-makers, and being the competitive forces that they are, its unlikely that established brands will share charging solutions with other brands. Its good when a brand like Porsche expresses interest though, because there's every chance that private contractors will step in and build charging station networks once enough interest is generated in EVs. Maybe governments around the world will take note and invest in a publicly funded bid to save the planet through greener vehicles, but only if they can resist the big oil corporations that fund political campaigns and vehemently deny greener solutions to energy. Lets be honest though, there is little chance of that happening, so we'll have to put our faith on private corporations behaving nicely and developing the sector instead of patent hoarding.
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