Porsche has been teasing plans for its all-electric Mission E, expected to pack as much as 670 hp, with hyperfast charging times to boot. On Wednesday, the automaker ramped things up a notch, announcing plans to install fast chargers at every single Porsche dealership in the U.S. Porsche’s EV chief also reportedly took a moment to take a swipe at Tesla.
The sleek four-door sedan is expected to carry a 95 kWh battery pack good for 310 miles on a single charge. If Porsche succeeds in rolling out the Mission E before the end of the decade, it’ll arguably be the most admirable competitor to Tesla’s all-electric Model S.
Perhaps in knowing this, the company’s head of battery electric vehicles, Stefan Weckbach, reportedly cut loose to a group of journalists that the Mission E’s performance can maintain top speed and reproduce acceleration reliably—specifically mentioning Tesla vehicles only being able to hit 0-60 in under 3 seconds on two occassions.
“The third attempt will fail,” Weckbach said. “The system is throttled.”
As Autoblog pointed out, though, his claim might be questionable:
We’re not sure about the claim of throttled Tesla acceleration, though. At one time Tesla did restrict the number of consecutive and total Launch Control deployments, as well as “full-pedal acceleration,” in order to save wear and tear on the battery and powertrain. However, Tesla erased the software restriction late last year after voluminous customer complaints.
Whatever the case, Weckbach’s not only thinking about performance. He stressed that Porsche is focused on providing fast charging times and the infrastructure to support EVs. The automaker plants to install 800-volt, 320 kW DC fast chargers at all 189 Porsche dealerships in the U.S., meaning it should net 250 miles in only 20 minutes, reports Ars Technica.
For locations in between, the automaker is relying on the Volkswagen Group’s broader efforts to facilitate lower-voltage Level 2 charger installation along highways and in public areas throughout the nation to support long-distance travel.
Tesla still has a leg up on the rest of the industry with its ever-expanding Supercharger network. But Autoblog makes a great point: about 80 percent of EV charging happens at home, anyway. It’s something EV charging gurus told us last month—the key issue is the gap in highway fast charging stations. So Porsche’s dealership is a smart move toward that direction.
After years of purported Tesla-killer cars being just around the corner, Porsche seems hellbent on bringing the Mission E to life within the next two years. I can’t imagine Tesla fans will be swayed by marketing alone, but it’ll surely be fun to see how the Mission E stands up.