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Transportation Power

Porsche Unveils Its First Electric Car 213

Posted by Soulskill from the even-the-bandwagon-is-electric-these-days dept.
An anonymous reader writes: German automaker Porsche has made its first foray into electric vehicles. On Monday at the Frankfurt Auto Show, it unveiled a concept car called the Porsche Mission E. Its 800-volt drive system can take the car from 0 to 100km/h in 3.5 seconds. The high-voltage charging system lets it gain 80% of its battery capacity back within 15 minutes. They claim a driving range of 500km on a single battery charge. Porsche said the car was not a response to the Tesla Model S, but the two will likely be direct competitors when the Mission E goes into full production. That will happen "within the next five years."
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Porsche Unveils Its First Electric Car More

Porsche Unveils Its First Electric Car

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  • Fast (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:31PM (#50527181)

    Zero to production in five years. Yay.

    • Hey, at least someone is making an electric car that isn't FUGLY.

      I was excited about electrics when Tesla had the roadsters out, but I just couldn't get one. Then tesla switched to only doing "family cars" and the like.

      I wish they'd out together a good looking, 2 seater sports car that was all electric, in the price range of maybe a corvette? Something affordable.

      I'm sure the Porsche will be out of my price range again, but at least someone is making an electric car that doesn't look ass ugly, or that a

      • Not only that but they're letting Tesla build out the infrastructure for them....nice

        • Re:Fast (Score:5, Insightful)

          by tnk1 ( 899206 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @08:47PM (#50528919)

          Which is pretty sweet, and exactly what Tesla wants.

          Tesla wants the competition in the market. They won't be able to put enough money together to make electric cars into the "new normal" by themselves. For that, they need a lot of competitors who are producing enough volume to make EVs something that you see everywhere.

          Once it hits a certain tipping point, the market will start supporting EVs as more than just toys. At that point, the goal of mass adoption could turn EVs into a replacement for gasoline vehicles which means that now Tesla makes more money due to increased volume over all. And being the owner of a great deal of production capacity for these sorts of vehicles, this means they have a head start on everyone else.

          It won't be enough to make Tesla completely dominant in the EV market, but it could propel them into a top spot in a New Electric Vehicle Order. More to the point, it would turn them into a real honest to goodness car company, and not just an expensive vanity project.

          Or to put it more succinctly, a rising tide lifts all ships. Any work that anyone does to support EVs or dedicate production capacity to EVs will help Tesla out too. Just like they're helping out everyone else by releasing their patents and building infrastructure.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bledri ( 1283728 )

        Hey, at least someone is making an electric car that isn't FUGLY.

        I was excited about electrics when Tesla had the roadsters out, but I just couldn't get one. Then tesla switched to only doing "family cars" and the like.

        I wish they'd out together a good looking, 2 seater sports car that was all electric, in the price range of maybe a corvette? Something affordable.

        I'm sure the Porsche will be out of my price range again, but at least someone is making an electric car that doesn't look ass ugly, or that a boring family of five's family truckster, ready to head to Wally World.

        I don't know about the price coming down but Tesla is planing to release a new Roadster in 4 years. That's sooner than the Porsche. At least before adjusting for Elon Musk's penchant for late deliveries (which don't bug me, but one must consider it when planning.)

        I like the look of the Model S, but clearly that is a personal preference. Hopefully someone will make something that works for you.

      • In 3 years, the new roadster based on the Model 3 frame, will be out. Musk has said that it will blow the doors off ludicris speed, i.e. 0-100 km in 1.x secs. And for around 50-60K.

    • From Porsche, I would have expected better than "in five years we'll be able to make a car that has the same range and is almost as fast as the P85Ds that Tesla has been selling for almost a year." (Never mind the even faster ludicrous P90D).

      About the only advantage would be the charging time, which is faster than Tesla's current crop of superchargers. But those have been improved several times over the last years, and with 5 years to go, I think it would be extremely unlikely for Teslas to still take more

  • EV conversion (Score:5, Informative)

    by i.r.id10t ( 595143 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:32PM (#50527193)

    One of the first cars Dr Ferdinand Porsche designed was electric, had motors on all 4 wheels.

    His son Ferry is the Porsche car maker we all know... and did the 356.

    But for the cost of a high end rebuild on a 356 engine, you can convert them to electric. Same conversion should owrk on any model with the 200mm clutch - 356, 912, 914 - as well as later (post '64 IIRC) VW bugs and busses.

    http://www.evwest.com/catalog/... [evwest.com]

    Also, I thought the 918 Spyder was electric?

    Finally, Saturday is the 19th - not just Talk Like a Pirate Day, it is Ferry Porsche's birthday and Drive Your Porsche Day.

    • Re:EV conversion (Score:4, Informative)

      by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:38PM (#50527229)

      Also, I thought the 918 Spyder was electric?

      Hybrid.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      But for the cost of a high end rebuild on a 356 engine, you can convert them to electric

      Rather entirely missing the point of owning a 365 and completely ruining it, in my opinion.

      Potato Jesus all over again. :)
      http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/... [knowyourmeme.com]

      Also, I thought the 918 Spyder was electric?

      As others have replied, its a hybrid.

    • But for the cost of a high end rebuild on a 356 engine, you can convert them to electric. Same conversion should owrk on any model with the 200mm clutch - 356, 912, 914 - as well as later (post '64 IIRC) VW bugs and busses.

      If you're going to do something like that, do it to some vehicle nobody actually cares about, like an old VW bug or bus, not a Porsche. Otherwise you just come off like a Philistine.

    • Re:EV conversion (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @06:46PM (#50528371)

      His son Ferry is the Porsche car maker we all know... and did the 356.

      His grandson Ferdinand Piech is the Porsche car maker we all should know... and did the 240mph 917/30 [ultimatecarpage.com], the Quattro (amen) and the Bugatti Veyron. Hell, he even designed the most reliable and indestructible engine ever put in a passenger car (the Mercedes turbo-charged five-cylinder). These may be among the reasons that it was he (and not his father or grandfather) who won Car Executive of the Century [wikipedia.org].

      • Why do I say this? Because even though Porsche rules required the owners (aka the Porsche family) to stay out of management (thus Piech's exodus to VW/Audi) in the late 70's), VW Group essentially functioned as one entity, sharing tech, manufacturing facilities and even platforms; there are multiple models that can be purchased either as a Porsche or an Audi...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Barny ( 103770 )

      Well, technically, his prototype for the Tiger tank was a hybrid diesel-electric. Powerplant drove a generator which ran electricity to two big electric motors that drove the wheels, kinda like what the new CAT 'dozers use.

  • Wrong headline (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:35PM (#50527209)

    This is NOT their first electric car by a long shot
    http://www.history.com/news/fe... [history.com]

    • Ferdinand != Ferry

      Ferry started the car company - Ferdinand was an engineer and worked for Mercedes, VW, etc.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by fnj ( 64210 )

        Ferdinand != Ferry

        Ferry started the car company - Ferdinand was an engineer and worked for Mercedes, VW, etc.

        Bull crap. Ferdinand Porsche (Sr.) (1875-1951) was the FOUNDER of Porsche car company as well as, yes, an engineer. He designed the VW Beetle and the Mercedes SS/SSK, as well as being heavily involved in Tiger Tanks, V1 rockets, and other war projects.

        Ferdinand Anton Ernst "Ferry" Porsche (1909-1998) was the son of Ferdinand, and operated Porsche AG.

    • Well another thing is that Porsche is owned by Volkswagen which came out with the E-Golf last year so technically I don't think Porsche coming out with an electric car is as huge a thing no matter how you look at it.

      • I have an eGolf and I love it, but I seriously fucking doubt Porsche's e car will have much similarity to the VW eGolf.

  • Slower, Same range, within 5 years?!? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by themeliorist ( 4261221 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:38PM (#50527225)
    Assuming it launches for a similar price range, it can't compete with a Model S now, much less in the next five years. Next year the supercharger network will blanket the US and they'll have two attractive (/expensive) models to choose from. In 2018 they'll have a $35k everyman's car to compete with the LEAF and Volt. How is Porsche going to compete? If this came out a year ago maybe it could rely on it's brand but Tesla is quickly becoming the Apple of cars (not entirely a good thing). Talk about dead on arrival.

    • What do you mean by compete? Do you think acceleration is the only important specification for a car? Sorry but if Porsche wants to they can eat Tesla's lunch.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Their charging system would be an incredible advance if it really can add 80% charge in 15 minutes. For the range they must have 80+kWh batteries. With losses they must be pushing 300kW into the charger. More than double what Tesla do.

        The down side is that we have yet another incompatible charging system.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by zdzichu ( 100333 )

          Pushing 300kW would mean 1300 amperes at 230V. Or 750 amperes with 3-phase 400V. Which is quite a lot (to waaaay understate). My whole apartment has 60 amperes terminal.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Cyberax ( 705495 )
            Tesla does 300Amps at 400Volts at superchargers, right now. Yes, that's a really scary amount of power.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by afidel ( 530433 )

            The cables wouldn't have to be that big, in my datacenter we run 600A 480V and the cables are about as big around as my fingers, granted there are 4 of them but that's not much bigger in total than the gas hose on many pumps with vapor recovery systems. It would be a lot heavier than a gas hose though so you'd probably need overhead support with the ability to swing the cable into position over the car so you're only moving a small fraction of the weight for those of smaller build.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AaronW ( 33736 )

            I have a 100A circuit for my house and another 100A circuit for my garage for charging my Tesla. At 80A (max continuous load is 80%) it still takes 5 1/2 hours to fully charge from empty, but that's drawing 20 KW.

            The Tesla superchargers typically are wired to 3-phase at 480V in the US. In Europe 3-phase is much more common from my understanding. Tesla maxes out at 120 KW in the US (135 in Europe) though I've heard plans to upgrade it to 150 KW.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fnj ( 64210 )

            Pushing 300kW would mean 1300 amperes at 230V. Or 750 amperes with 3-phase 400V. Which is quite a lot (to waaaay understate). My whole apartment has 60 amperes terminal.

            Or, more to the point, 375 amps at 800 volts, since it is an 800 volt car. To put it in perspective, 300 amp service is nothing out of the ordinary for a US single-family home (of course not at 800 volts, but the voltage is just the pontential; the demand on the conductor is strictly the amps of current).

            You can take it as a given that suppl

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AaronW ( 33736 )

          None of the existing charging standards can handle 300 KW. Tesla is currently the highest and they top out at 120 KW (135 KW in Europe). Tesla is talking of upping theirs to 150 KW in the near future. CCS and ChaDeMo talk about handling up to 100 KW but most charging stations only handle a fraction of that. Tesla has a ChaDeMo adapter but customers have been complaining that it causes a lot of ChaDeMo chargers to overheat when they're asked to pull 45 KW continuously.

          I have had my car for 2 1/2 years so far

      • Re:Slower, Same range, within 5 years?!? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by AaronW ( 33736 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @05:01PM (#50527755) Homepage

        Not easily. With Tesla you're getting a lot more than just a car. You're also getting access to the largest network of rapid chargers along major routes. Next week I'm driving from the SF Bay Area up to Seattle in my Tesla. At least from the Bay Area to Grant's Pass OR I'll spend around 90 minutes charging for that route with most stops being 20-30 minutes. Right now I can drive from San Diego to Edmonton Canada or across the country to the East Coast on Tesla's superchargers. There's already a huge amount of charging infrastructure in place with more going online quite rapidly. There is nothing equivalent right now for non-Tesla EVs. Sure, there's a lot of ChaDeMo chargers in urban centers but there are many places where it's quite difficult to go. I have a friend with a Leaf and it takes him at least a couple of days to reach the Oregon border from the SF Bay Area since he has to spend a significant amount of time charging at RV parks since there's no infrastructure between major urban areas.

        Also, I don't think there are many CCS chargers that could output anywhere near enough to charge the Porsche to 80% in 15 minutes. Tesla's supercharger network outputs 120KW (135 in Europe). Also, unlike the mish-mash of CCS and ChaDeMo chargers, they're being installed along major routes. It will be at least several years until CCS catches up with where Tesla's network is now. As it is, Tesla owners with the ChaDeMo adapter have been complaining that many ChaDeMo chargers can't even handle 45KW without overheating (even in the dead of winter when it's 0F outside).

        Tesla also will have the battery manufacturing capacity to significantly cut prices on the batteries. Additionally, they're already starting to offset their charging stations with solar and grid-tied batteries to significantly reduce peak electricity usage and cut costs. Also, nobody has talked about the price of the Porsche. You can bet that it will be a lot more expensive than Tesla.

        • This comparison, interesting as it is, is exactly why myself and about 99% of other drivers out there would never willingly choose to rely solely upon all-electric for long trips, given the choice between gas and electric. A couple of DAYS between SF and the Oregon border? No, thank you... I'll take option C (gas-powered).

          Somehow get 1) battery charge completion (95-100%) down to 10 minutes or less and 2) a national network of chargers at least half as populous as the current number of gas stations and we'l

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bentcd ( 690786 )

            A couple of DAYS between SF and the Oregon border?

            I have no idea how far this is, but that is also not relevant.

            If Tesla has superchargers along your route then essentially your Model S drives for 4 hours then charges for 20 minutes before repeating the cycle. It can keep doing this 24/7 for however long you need it to. What will usually stop you is tired drivers or having reached your destination.

            This summer I did a 12 hour drive with a Model S covering about 800km, which includes ~2h of stops wasted on feeding the humans. (That may seem like slow going b

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by haruchai ( 17472 )

          Just a few days ago, I read that Tesla has now passed 500 Superchargers stations globally with a total of 2800 charging bays.
          It took them 1.5 years to get to 100 stations and another 1.5 to add the next 400.

          Wow.

    • Re:Slower, Same range, within 5 years?!? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by lymond01 ( 314120 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:46PM (#50527275)

      Porsche doesn't compete with non-performance cars. From appearance and probably stats, this will be more in the supercar arena: Audi R8, BMW i8, Ferraris, Lamborghinis. My guess, if it's up to Porsche standards, one will be required to find at least $150,000 to afford this. Which, according to reports, is how much a fully loaded Tesla Model X will run (the price range is...large on that one: mid $70s to mid $100s).

      I drive a Civic. I had a Porsche for a weekend earlier this year -- 911 Carrera S. I imagine it to be a land-based version of a fighter jet. I haven't driven a Tesla -- I hear they are very very nice, very fast off the line...but I wonder how their sport handling compares to a 911. Hmm...need to find me some Youtube comparisons...

      Oh, and will someone explain what BMW is doing with the i3? When I think BMW, I think sport sedan. That thing has the specs of a Nissan Leaf and the looks of a Scion Cube. I'd expected something Tesla-ish.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Amouth ( 879122 )

        will someone explain what BMW is doing with the i3? When I think BMW, I think sport sedan. That thing has the specs of a Nissan Leaf and the looks of a Scion Cube. I'd expected something Tesla-ish.

        My bet is they are hitting the target market that wants to say "i'm wealthy, and i'm green" who are not wealthy enough to drive a Tesla/i8 and are just snob enough not to drive a Leaf.

        From a "looks" prospective i think it looks like just about every sad rendering of a car of the "future" crammed into a echo box frame. To me the i8 looks good but the i3 is up there on the ugly meter on par with the Pontiac Aztek

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by haruchai ( 17472 )

          The i3 was always supposed to be a city car and I thought that with those carriage doors, it would make a great taxi if BMW widened the back seat to properly fit 3 people. But it's no beauty queen.

      • The BMW i3 is a weird car. However the issue with EREV's is that unlike full BEV vehicles you still have standard vehicle maintenance. You might and in fact not believe this but the Nissan Leaf has the lowest TCO [edmunds.com] of any car in recent years. No oil, no exhaust, no transmission (relatively speaking). The brakes ride on the recharge system prolonging brake pad life. No wiring exposed to the elements. In fact all of the components are in an enclosed space making them much less susceptible to the environm

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Yunzil ( 181064 )

      Some people will buy it simply because it says "Porsche" on the back.

    • There is room for more than 2 or 3 competitors in any part of the car industry. The f-150 and tacoma seem to provide all anyone could possibly want in a truck. However, their existence isn't stopping chevy, dodge, nissan, etc from selling pickup trucks.

  • Still playing catch-up (Score:3)

    by rgmoore ( 133276 ) <glandauer@charter.net> on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:41PM (#50527243) Homepage

    Big deal. Porsche is unveiling a prototype of a car that can compete with what Tesla has been doing for a few years. That's great, except that Tesla is a moving target. If Porsche wants to get some excitement going, they need to put out something that will compete with where Tesla will be in a few years when this thing actually makes it into production.

    • Re:Still playing catch-up (Score:4, Funny)

      by SpankiMonki ( 3493987 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:58PM (#50527357)
      It IS a big deal! Porsche will be the FIRST electric car with a battery hanging behind the rear axle! It won't even need front wheels! They're just for show! Porsche FTW!!!

    • That's what I thought when I read the summary as well. Tesla Model S P85D has a 0-60 time of 2.5 seconds. This porche appears to be designed to compete with the pre-P85D model S.

      Tesla is so far ahead of everyone that even Porsche can't beat them in a performance sector that Tesla doesn't even really compete in.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by haruchai ( 17472 )

        The P85D does 0-60 in 3.2s although a few have managed 3.1s on track surfaces with really good tires and gets 11.6 - 11.8s at the 1/4 mi.
        The P90D which is just starting to ship is touted to have a 0-60 of 2.8s and a 10.8s at the 1/4.

  • Lots of details in that article (Score:3)

    by Lucas123 ( 935744 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:55PM (#50527333) Homepage

    I just can't seem to find the expected price tag. Whoops. I forgot, if you need to ask the price of a Porsche, you cannot afford it.

    Personally, I'm vastly more excited about an affordable Tesla than some horrifically expensive EV Porsche.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mccalli ( 323026 )
      I'm equally interested - there's room in the market for more than one kind of car.

      I currently have a Boxster (987.2), and previously a 911 (996, was twenty years old when I had it and then the engine blew up as early 996's are wont to do...). I've looked at the Tesla and would really like it, but the handling of the Boxster is something I'd miss and there's no convertible either.

      That doesn't make the Tesla bad of course, it just makes a different segment. So I'm equally interested in the new Porsche d

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Amouth ( 879122 )

        I've AutoX'ed a Tesla Roadster, if it is setup right that thing is a beast. haven't had a chance for a model S yet, would be fun.

    • Would it be anything $1k? It's electric, AND it's a Porsche. Only people who have cash to crap on status symbols would be able to afford it.

  • Pity the big auto companies were so blind. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:55PM (#50527335) Journal

    A number of people (myself included) have known for decades (and somtimes brought to the attention of auto company executives that electric cars could be capable of performance far better than fuel-driven engines and limited only by the traction of the tires, and that people might want lectric vehicles with sane levels of performance.

    But the auto execs only thought of electric vehicles as appealing to eco-freaks, who would be willing to accept - and might desire - classic VW levels of performance. So when they designed electric "concept cars" they didn't do the engineering to achieve performance. Their offerings were traffic-snarling, short-range, wimpy eco-freak commuter cars.

    This left the market SO open that Elon Musk (who also understood the demand) was able to build a successful new auto company from scratch (a couple billion dollars worth) and capture the market.

    Musk started with the high end - to recover the development cost from the early adopters willing to pay big for the new toy - in classic Silicon Valley style. He's working his way down from the pricey prestige cars to the bulk market as fast as his engineers can bring the cost down and his financing can build the manufacturing infrastructure (and his lawyers and lobbyists can remove the legal obstacles to his not-dealer-dependent marketing).

    But now the PARTIAL lesson - that there's a market at the top for a high-performance electric car - has been learned, and a prestige auto maker is trying to get a slice of that.

    They're STILL not seeing the whole picture. Which is very good for Tesla. B-)

    • Most of the traditional car companies still sneer at electric cars and not capable performers. BMW, Mercedes and Porsche (probably Lamborghini) as well have now developed electric cars to compete with 3 year old Tesla's but only because they were tired of people asking about them. They are being dragged kicking and screaming into electric because of Tesla's sales numbers are beginning to erode their own market-share.

      My bet is they continue to treat the electric car not as a technological advance but as a ha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )

      In an interview in May of this year: Porsche CEO Muller said:
      “I cannot say anything about Tesla,” he said. “I don’t know anything about Tesla .”

      I think the Tesla is eating into their sales of Cayenne, Panamera (and even 911) so this is a defensive move. The announcement is pure vapor and it will be five years before you can actually buy one (if they decide to make it) so they are very late to the game. In five years, Tesla will have the Model S, Model X and Model 3 in full prod

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by swb ( 14022 )

        I doubt the Tesla is eating into sales of the Cayenne, it's a SUV. The Panamera, maybe, but it's a much better handling car and has more top end and all wheel drive -- plus, much more expensive than Tesla. 911 is iconic -- nobody is buying a Tesla who wants a 911. They're not even in the same ballpark.

        The people who are probably worrying about the Tesla are Mercedes and BMW. The S550 is still a big deal, but it's not hard to see buyers switching from that to Tesla, same with the BMW 7 series, too. I th

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Jeremi ( 14640 )

          I doubt the Tesla is eating into sales of the Cayenne, it's a SUV.

          You might be right; OTOH I can certainly imagine a number of potential Cayenne buyers sitting on their money waiting for the Model X to become available. Whether or not that would be noticeable in Porsche's Cayenne sales figures I have no idea.

    • Re:Pity the big auto companies were so blind. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Strudelkugel ( 594414 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @05:03PM (#50527777)
      FYI:

      Tesla Motors was founded by Martin Eberhardt and Marc Tarpenning. [wikipedia.org] Musk was an early investor.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        From your wiki link:

        One public provision stated that the parties will consider Eberhard, Musk, Straubel, Tarpenning, and Wright to be the five co-founders. Eberhard also issued a statement about Musk's foundational role in the company: "As a co-founder of the company, Elon's contributions to Tesla have been extraordinary."

    • Re:Pity the big auto companies were so blind. (Score:5, Informative)

      by AaronW ( 33736 ) on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @05:41PM (#50528051) Homepage

      I agree. I own a Tesla model S P85 (for 2 1/2 years now). Tesla brings a lot more to the table than just the car. They also have a nation-wide charging network that nobody else comes close to. Next week I will be driving from the SF Bay Area to Seattle, WA. I plan to take a leisurely drive, stopping in Grants Pass for the night. On my drive to Grants Pass I will spend less than 90 minutes charging out of about 8 hours of driving. Given how most superchargers are near malls and other amenities I've found that often I grab something to eat and my car is fully charged before I am.

      Besides the charging network, Tesla is also addressing the battery supply with their gigafactory, which should significantly reduce the cost of their batteries. On top of that they're also offsetting their superchargers with solar power and are now starting to add grid battery storage as well to significantly cut peak power usage.

      Nobody else comes anywhere close. Their service and support has been excellent, though I've also heard that Porsche is also quite good. Even though my car was one of the early ones manufactured (VIN in the low 5000s) I've had very few problems and no major problems. Most were just squeaks and rattles, which they quickly fixed. They've also made very rapid improvements to the car in the 2 1/2 years since I bought mine. It may look the same on the outside, but there are a lot of new features under the hood and Tesla has addressed problems quickly in their production run, not waiting for 6-month or yearly intervals like many manufacturers.

    • The electric car revolution we're seeing now depended on the availability of batteries with a high-enough capacity-to-weight ratio to combine sportscar performance with decent range. That availability is pretty recent, and was driven by gigantic amount of research across the laptop and phone industry. A single car manufacturer wouldn't have been able to spend enough money to create usable batteries on its own, so an electric car built 30 years ago would have had sportscar performance and a range of 30 miles

  • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Capacity (Score:4, Funny)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @04:07PM (#50527417)

    "The high-voltage charging system lets it gain 80% of its battery capacity back within 15 minutes. "

    Don't they have any marketing slime in their company?
    Why don't they just add another 20% to the battery, then they can claim that it will be _fully_ recharged after 15 minutes?

    Later people will notice that if you let it stay longer on the charger, they will even get 120% of the capacity.

    It would be a win/win.

  • Likely to be around 150K USD. Given the typical Porche production runs and amortization schedules and past pricing policy.

    800 Volt motor is quite unusual for an automobile. Wondering what the cost/benefit is for such an voltage. For the same power, the current will be low, so the conductors can be thinner. The motor could be made more compact. But insulation and isolation could be a head ache. Wondering how they would provide safety in crashes.

  • Based on the spec, it will compete with now obsolete Tesla Roadster. Good luck.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bledri ( 1283728 )

      Based on the spec, it will compete with now obsolete Tesla Roadster. Good luck.

      Actually, Tesla is planning a new roadster [pocket-lint.com] for about the same time frame. So it will be competing with the new Roadster, not the obsolete one. I'd say good luck with that, but I imagine different people will have different preferences.

  • Then the breakthrough is the fast charging system. 80% in 15 minutes is approaching the "electric filling station" of our dreams. Such a paradigm would still not be the same as filling up a car and going on your way, but it could fit in with a fill-at-the-supermarket strategy that works with a loyalty program, like the one Kroger offers to its customers.

  • For a long time, muscle cars kept trying to push the 0-60mph acceleration. We basically hit a limit with internal combustion engines. I don't think we've even come close to the limit an electric motor can do. Don't they produce more torque than you can get friction with tires? So the limiting nature might be on the tire design. It's been a long time since I've been intrigued by fast cars, but I want to see just how quickly they can get 0-60mph if the car is designed for that. We all know electric c

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      Don't they produce more torque than you can get friction with tires?

      Sure, although a number of gas-powered cars can do that also AFAIK.

      So the limiting nature might be on the tire design.

      No worries, someone will design a car with 8 wheels; the usual four plus an extra four that descend to touch the ground only during hard acceleration or braking, thus doubling the amount of friction available.

      Eh, could happen.... :)

  • So, um, basic math envelope-scirbbling:

    ~100kWh battery (to be slightly more range than 85kWh Tesla), charging to 80% (or 80kWh) in 15 minutes, is 320kW during charging.

    320kW / 240V = ~1300kA

    Good luck getting your local electric company to give you a 1300+ amp connection for a residence. Most people have at most 100-200A on their main breaker. And the theoretical "concept" of this car's inductive charging system: 800V at presumably around 400A is just scary. Don't accidentally drop a penny under the car o

  • The market is more than large enough that Tesla can't keep up with demand. Porsche adds luxuries on top of the electric car. What if you don't like the look of the Tesla or you want other colors/features. These are two kids playing in a sandbox the size of a small city. More than enough room for both of them. I even find it likely that Tesla may consult for them and eventually in 5 years be selling them batteries from their Giga factories.

  • Ok, here is a 4 seater sports car which does 0-60 in 3.8 secs which after reading the description of the car, makes it sound like it will run about $250,000-500,000. Who really thinks that a slower car, that is easily 2-4x as costly, is going to compete against Tesla? Seriously?

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