With Tesla Motors’ increased production of their Model S thanks to a new factory finally coming to fruition, there exists a new challenger to the electric car maker’s throne. That challenger comes from a familiar name, Porsche. The Porsche’s Mission E concept car is the luxury automaker's direct challenge to the Model S. The car is a great headline piece as Porsche claims it could be the even faster than the Model S and possibly the fastest electric car ever.
What that actually means, in reality, is that the top end maximum speed the Mission E can go is the highest. While going from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds is nothing to sneeze at, the max speed is less useful or important to the everyday performance or luxury car enthusiast.
Also, like many other electric concepts, prototypes, and Tesla’s production models, the Mission E only has one gear. This feature hurts its speed profile and top end speed while reducing weight since all the normal gearbox components are not needed. This loss of weight helps the car stay nimble despite its other limitations.
The mission E’s battery is one of the more incredible parts of the vehicle. According to
Car and Driver, Porsche claims the car will recharge 80 percent of its battery in just 15 minutes. The battery is also supposed to use much less power than similar systems such as Tesla’s Supercharger system. That combination presents the biggest threat to Tesla, should the automaker be able to use that technology in other products or cars that might make it to market quicker then the Mission E concept.
With an amazing 310 mile range and a quick charging system, the Mission E appears to be one of the strongest challengers to Tesla and its maverick executive Elon Musk. The only thing holding back this challenger is the fact that it is some years away from being in production. This, while the Model S is beginning to roll off the factory line, is the greatest advantage of the Model S. It is the first mover among luxury performance electric cars and it remains to be seen how big of an advantage that will be.
With the car being just a concept, price is unknown at this time. Being a Porsche and an advanced electric car it can be safe to assume it will cost a pretty penny but it remains to be seen how much technology can bring down the price of such amazing vehicles with the help of time.
