Porsche has no confirmed model program to develop a second battery-electric vehicle after the Mission E project launches as its anti-Tesla sedan in late 2019. The smart money is betting on an SUV or a crossover arriving within a year of the four-door, 310-mile-range Mission E that was previewed with a concept (photo above) at the 2015 Frankfurt auto show. But at this year’s Paris show, Porsche cautioned us that this apparently logical option is a long way from locked in as the second all-electric vehicle.
Porsche?s R&D boss, Michael Steiner, admitted that the German sports-car maker is so wary of getting the second car wrong that it is waiting until the last possible moment to commit to what it might actually build. The good news is that whatever it eventually decides on will happen quickly (and it will need to, if Porsche wants it on sale when the tighter EU7 emissions laws clamp down in 2021). It could be based on either a modified Mission E architecture, a reworked Audi e-tron Quattro platform, or anything else from the Volkswagen Group?s expanding electric toolbox. Steiner was adamant that there will be a full family of battery-electric (BEV) Porsches to go along with its growing selection of plug-in hybrids by 2021. It just wants to wait and see before betting the farm (a position that should surprise no one familiar with Porsche history).
Getting Ready for the Turning Point
?The battery-electric business will continue to grow faster, and we think the whole ...