Porsche has announced it plans to spend more than €6 billion ($9.42 billion) on electromobility within the next five years, doubling its expenditure to focus on upcoming plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models and electric vehicles (EV).
Decided at the most recent Porsche AG Supervisory Board meeting, the investment has been divided into material assets and development costs – around €3b ($4.71b) for the former and just over €3b for the latter.
“We are doubling our expenditure on electromobility from around three billion euro to more than six billion euro,” said Oliver Blume, chairman of the executive board for Porsche AG.
“Alongside development of our models with combustion engines, we are setting an important course for the future with this decision.”
The company has confirmed some €500 million ($785m) will be used for the development of the Mission E electric sports car – including all its “variants and derivatives” – and around €1 billion ($1.57b) for the electrification and hybridisation of the existing product portfolio.
Porsche says the production version of the Mission E has a system power output of 600hp (447kW), allowing it to dash from 0-100km/h in “significantly less than 3.5 seconds” – so around 3.0 seconds then, Porsche?
The company also claims its upcoming EV will offer a range of up to 500 kilometres, while being able to replenish 400 kilometres of range in just 15 minutes thanks to 800V fast-charging.
Meanwhile, Porsche will continue to invest in the electrification of its core model range, currently headlined by the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid (above) – which teams a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with an electric motor for a massive 500kW of power and 850Nm of torque, making for a 3.4-second sprint from 0-100km/h.
According to the German marque, around 60 per cent of Panamera customers in Europe opt for hybrid versions, with that ratio increasing to 90 per cent in Scandinavia.
Finally, Porsche will also invest in the upgrading of charging infrastructure throughout Europe, in a joint venture with Audi, BMW Group, Daimler AG and Ford Motor Company.
The project will see some 400 rapid charging stations introduced along major European traffic routes by 2020, with construction having already commenced last year. Porsche’s own dealer network is becoming part of Europe’s charging infrastructure, too.
It’s the latest in a spate of announcements from various manufacturers committing to development in electromobility. Parent company Volkswagen aims to have one-third of all vehicle sales to be electrified by the year 2025, while Volvo has committed to all new models released from 2019 to feature some form of electrification.
The wave of investments are likely to be in response to Silicon Valley-based Tesla, which until now has been largely unchallenged in the high-performance EV arena.
What do you think about Porsche’s electrification plans?
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