Porsche is working on all-electric ‘derivatives of the Mission E’

Porsche has yet to launch its first all-electric vehicle, the Mission E, but it is already warming up to electric vehicles after seeing demand switching to the hybrid versions of its cars.

Now, they say that they are even working on all-electric ‘derivatives of the Mission E’.

The German automaker announced today that around 60 percent of all new Panamera models in Europe were equipped with a hybrid drive.

Porsche is starting to see more demand for its hybrid vehicles than its petrol-only:

“In France, for example, the figure is 70 per cent, in Austria it is over 80 per cent and in Belgium it is even over 90 per cent. When it comes to incoming orders, the Scandinavian countries are showing their high affinity for electromobility: In Norway, 90 per cent of all Panamera customers order a hybrid model, while in Finland the figure is 85 per cent.”

Those data points seem to push Porsche to think more about the electrification of its model lineup and that hybrids are probably not the best way to go.

Last month, Porsche CEO admitted that Tesla is stealing away some customers with its all-electric vehicles.

Albrecht Reimold, Member of Porsche’s Executive Board for Production and Logistics, says that the automaker is now getting ready to produce all-electric vehicles in volume:

“Sustainability is the foundation of our company management. Resource-efficient production methods are of the highest priority for Porsche, and are also being factored into the restructuring of our traditional plant in Zuffenhausen for the production of the first purely electric Porsche. Our goal is to achieve CO2-neutral production. We are completely on schedule. The Mission E will be on the market by the end of the decade.”

Reimold even called the Mission E “Porsche’s most ambitious project ever” and now they are planning new vehicles based on the platform.

He added:

“We are already thinking about derivatives of the Mission E. We are also planning additional purely electric vehicles and investigating relevant segments. We are working with Audi on a joint electric vehicle architecture for the long-term future.”

Earlier this year, Porsche and Audi, which are both Volkswagen brands, started work on a shared architecture for electric and autonomous vehicles.

Electrek’s Take

I am honestly excited about Porsche’s change of attitude toward electric vehicles. It wasn’t long ago that Porsche claimed all-electric powertrains didn’t offer enough performance to reach the level that their customers expect from the premium German brand.

Now Porsche plans for 50% of its production to be electric within 6 years – which is one of the most aggressive electrification goals of any legacy automaker.

And the Mission E is so far shaping up to be a great first entry in the all-electric space for the legendary automaker. We recently saw a test mule speed around Nürburgring track and Porsche is benchmarking it against Tesla’s vehicles.

We are expecting the vehicle in 2019 and after that, it looks like the long-rumored all-electric Cayenne could be Porsche’s first derivative of the Mission E.