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Porsche Unveils Its First Electric Car
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."
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/...
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.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
FYI:
Tesla Motors was founded by Martin Eberhardt and Marc Tarpenning. Musk was an early investor.
Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe
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.
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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."