Porsche doubles electromobility investment

Source: www.ismr.co.uk
March 2018

Porsche has been putting together an unprecedented future development plan. By 2022, the sports car manufacturer will invest more than six billion euros in electromobility, focusing on both plug-in hybrids and purely electric vehicles. The decision was made by the Porsche AG Supervisory Board at its most recent meeting.

“We are doubling our expenditure on electromobility from around three billion euros to more than six billion euros,” explained Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. “Alongside development of our models with combustion engines, we are setting an important course for the future with this decision.”

The plans have been bolstered significantly to include around three billion euros of investment in material assets, and slightly more than three billion euros in development costs. From the additional sum of three billion euros, some 500 million euros will be used for the development of Mission E variants and derivatives, around one billion euros for electrification and hybridisation of the existing product range, several hundred million euros for the expansion of sites, plus around 700 million euros in new technologies, charging infrastructure and smart mobility.

In Zuffenhausen, a new paint shop, dedicated assembly area and a conveyor bridge for transporting the painted bodies and drive units to the final assembly area are currently being built. The existing engine plant is being expanded to manufacture electric drives and the body shop will also be developed. Investment is also planned for the Weissach Development Centre. The Mission E project has created approximately 1200 new jobs.

The purely electric Mission E sports car has a system power of 600hp so will require significantly less than 3.5 seconds to sprint from 0 to 100km/h; it will also be able to accelerate and brake repeatedly without any loss of performance, and it will offer a range of 500 kilometres in the NEDC. The charging time, said Porsche, will be very short. With its 800V system voltage, it will take 15 minutes for 400 kilometres.

Porsche, along with Audi, is representing the Volkswagen Group in Ionity, a joint venture with the BMW Group, Daimler AG and Ford Motor Company. The goal of this venture is to construct and operate 400 powerful rapid charging stations along major European traffic routes by 2020. Construction began back in 2017. To complement the work of Ionity, the Porsche dealer network is becoming part of a nationwide rapid charging infrastructure.

The release of the new Panamera sees the third generation of the Porsche plug-in hybrid drive on the road in two different variants. Both variants offer a purely electric range of up to 50 kilometres. The Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid is the flagship model in the model line with a four-litre V8 engine and an electric motor generating a system power of 680hp.