Volkswagen is moving forward with its plan to significantly increase the number of electric vehicles across its brands. Most established automakers seem to focus on plug-in hybrids in order to electrify their lineups, but Volkswagen is committing to all-electric vehicles, which is refreshing, and plans to introduce more than 30 new models and to produce “2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year by 2025” across all of its brands.
One of the first vehicles confirmed under this plan is Porsche’s Mission E, an all-electric luxury sedan. The automaker confirmed on Tuesday it is ramping up its effort to bring the vehicle to market and now plans to create 40% more jobs for the program than anticipated.
The company had previously announced that it would create about 1,000 new jobs at its base in Zuffenhausen and an investment about 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) to make Porsche’s first all-electric car.
Now Porsche is talking about as many as 1,400 jobs to build up the Mission E’s assembly line and bring the vehicle to market by the end of the decade. Preparations are reportedly well underway in Zuffenhausen.
The Porsche Mission E, which has been ridiculously dubbed the “Tesla Killer” before, will be Porsche’s first all-electric vehicle and among Volkswagen’s first generation of long-range electric vehicles with the likes of Audi’s e-tron quattro and VW’s BUDD-e.
The company says it is aiming for the Mission E to have “over 310 miles of range” (500 km) on a single charge, but being based in Germany, Porsche is likely talking about the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), which is much more forgiving than the EPA rating and doesn’t really reflect real-world range.
The Tesla Model S 90D gets 346 miles (557 km) of NEDC-rated range, but 294 miles (473 km) of EPA-rated range.
The Mission E is likely to achieve a similar range.
Porsche is also aiming for strong performance, which it claims will have nothing to envy of its gas-powered counterparts. It is aiming for a 0 to 60 mph acceleration in 3.5 seconds. The automaker also claims that the Mission E will be equipped with a 800-volt charging system able to charge up to 80% in about 15 minutes.
The design of the vehicle has been praised (see gallery below) and won the prestigious ‘Concept Car Design of the year’ at Car Design Night at the 2016 Geneva International Motor Show. Not long after the unveiling, Tesla hired the interior designer of the concept.
The timeline for the release of the vehicle is still vague and the company only mentioned “by the end of the decade”. We will be following its progress closely.
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