Porsche’s first all-electric vehicle, the Mission E, is one of the most anticipated EVs coming by the end of the decade. This is due to the performance automaker’s ambition to make it competitive with gas-powered cars – even on the track.
Today, the German automaker releases more information about the battery and charging technology enabling the upcoming Mission E.
In an interview released by the automaker today, Uwe Michael, Head of the Electrics/Electronics Development Division at Porsche, talked about both the company plans for home and public charging.
He said:
“We intend to revolutionise charging times by doubling the capacity of the high-voltage system from 400 V to 800 V. In a nutshell – a range of 400 km in less than 20 minutes. Without exception, all our current competitors are advertising charging durations which are twice as long.”
As we recently reported, Porsche started installing the first stations using this technology in Germany and the US. It will also be part of the network deployed by a joint venture between Porsche, Audi, BMW, Daimler and Ford in Europe.
Uwe Michael, Head of the Electrics/Electronics Development Division at Porsche
Interestingly, Michael added that drivers will be able to reserve charging spots at those stations. When asked about examples of Porsche working on both hardware and software with its future electric vehicles, he said:
“Or take the Turbo Charging Planner for our battery electric powertrains as another example; quick-charge options are optimally matched to your route planning and charging pedestals are pre-reserved, meaning that you can gain that all-important advantage and lose as little time as possible. Added value of this kind helps to determine the essence of the brand.”
But Michael also talked about expanding Porsche’s lineup of home chargers with an internet connection that lets you plan charge time and different charge rates:
“Of course. We’ll also be able to tailor charging output to customer needs. For example, 3.6 kW for a plug-in hybrid or 7.2 kW for drivers who want to go faster in their Porsche vehicle. For purely electric vehicles, the customer can choose between 11 kW and 22 kW.”
The Porsche executive also talked about the company’s work in battery technology. He said that they are working closely with a battery manufacturer on a proprietary chemistry to optimize performance.
He said that the Mission E will feature cells with a significant improvement in capacity, but he also expects the technology to improve consistently over the next few years:
“Our Mission E vehicle already demonstrates quite a high level of development. We also anticipate that the efficiency of traditional lithium-ion batteries will improve by up to 5 percent per year in the foreseeable future. In the long term, these foreseeable improvements alone will result in hugely increased power.”
Therefore, they plan to keep using traditional lithium-ion cells, but Michael also said that Porsche is tracking progress with solid-state batteries and metal-air batteries, which he expects could hit the market by 2025 and 2030 respectively.
As we previously reported, metal-air development seems to have slowed down in recent years with a bigger focus on solid-state and several companies plan commercialization much sooner than Michael’s timeframe (2019 to 2022 for a few companies).
Porsche’s Mission E is due to launch 2019. We recently had a close look at Porsche’s latest all-electric Mission E prototype and more details following a special event in Norway.
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