Porsche claims all-electric Mission E will maintain high-speeds longer than Tesla’s Model S

We know that for a while now Porsche has been benchmarking its upcoming first all-electric vehicle, the Mission E, against Tesla’s Model S.

While the latter’s current version seems to already beat many announced performance specs of the former, we have always believed that track performance and long high power outputs could be areas of focus to improve on for Porsche in this new electric car.

Now the company has confirmed it and took a swipe at Tesla in the process.

As we recently reported, Porsche seems to be working hard to sell its electric transformation to its motorhead fans and they have been releasing a series of interviews and press releases in order to push that lately.

In the latest of those interviews, Stefan Weckbach, Head of Battery-Electric Vehicles at Porsche, was asked about the fact that Tesla can achieve an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under three seconds.

He responded:

“But only twice – the third attempt will fail. The system is throttled. Porsche drivers won’t need to worry about anything like that happening. The Mission E will offer reproducible performance and a top speed which can be maintained for long periods. And that’s not all. The longitudinal and lateral dynamics of the Mission E will be typical of a Porsche and represent a real treat for any driver.”

The “throttled” comment is actually incorrect. While Tesla has limited the power output of its performance vehicles in the past, owners have still access to the full power through Tesla’s launch mode.

Furthermore, while it’s true that acceleration is affected by the state of charge of the battery pack and temperature of the powertrain, among many other factors, it would be inaccurate to say that Tesla Model S drivers can’t launch the vehicle more than twice before they can’t achieve a 0-60 mph acceleration in less than 3 seconds.

Drivers have launched the Model S P100D on the race track a dozen times with similar 0-60 mph times (down to about 2.5 seconds now).

When it comes to maintaining a top speed for long periods, Weckbach is right that Tesla’s vehicles are not optimized for that and lose a lot of range when trying to maintain high speeds.

As for the Mission E, Porsche has only confirmed a few specs about the vehicle, like “over 310 miles of range” (500 km) NEDC, which is likely closer to around 250 miles of real-world range, and a 0 to 60 mph acceleration in 3.5 seconds.

Electrek’s Take

I have a few problems with his comment because it either shows that he is misinformed about the Model S, which he shouldn’t be since his team has been benchmarking the Mission E against it, or that he is lying to make their vehicle look better against it.

That’s not a good look either way.

With this said, he does have a point about maintaining a top speed for long periods. We already suspected that it could be a focus of the German automaker on the Mission E since there have been complaints from some Tesla owners who like to drive at high speeds on the Autobahn.

It’s interesting to see them now confirming that they are going in that direction, but it’s not like he confirmed any specifics and we will have to see how it translates into actual performance.

I’d also keep in mind that the vehicle is still about a year away from production and Tesla may have an answer to those problems by that time. We will have to see.

But competition is certainly heating up and that’s interesting.