EV Porsche

So we know that a flat-four cylinder Porsche is in the plans. We also know that Porsche is seriously considering engine downsizing and greater use of forced induction to meet the current environmental concerns of those EU bureaucrats in Brussels. Interestingly, these EU politicians talk about CO2 reduction and addressing climate change, but take a look the official cars parked at the EU Parliament - you will see rows and rows of Bentleys, 7-series and S-class limousines.

Anyway, the reality is that Porsche is the largest sports car company by volume. That makes them an easy target for legislators. Being an independent sports car company (irrespective of the VW-Porsche merger, VW is already related to Porsche on historical grounds), they can't scale back their volume without affecting Porsche's business case.

Porsche needs to fight back and stay relevant in the future with alternative powertrains. The challenge is to do so without negatively affecting Porsche's core identity. Late last year, I remember reading an interview with the 911 Product-line Manager August Achleitner saying that an electric 911 is not a possible due to an obvious mismatch between the 911's iconic character and the characteristics of an EV. He is not talking in terms of driving dynamics, as electric motors produce ridiculously high torque so performance of electric cars is no longer an issue. Just look at Tesla! But Herr August is referring to more emotional elements like a unique exhaust note and the "feel" of a petrol internal combustion engine.

However within a span of less than 6 months Porsche seems to be singing a slightly different tune now. The company is rumoured to have taken a very serious interest in the electric Tesla Roadster. Also, in an interview with Australian GoAuto, the Managing Director of Porsche Cars Australia said,

“The harsh reality is that fossil fuels are going to run out one day and we will
still all want individual transport, so we have to look at alternatives. If you
want to be in business, you have to.

I can assure you at this point there are no plans to make an electric car. Those plans do not exist. What does exist … every car company and every development centre has a group of people who try to think 20 or 30 years into the future and do what they call pre-development, and those guys think of every possibility.

That is one of the key reasons for (Porsche’s) investment in the Volkswagen company, realising that developing new technologies like that is so immensely expensive that a small company like ours would be struggling to do that on its own.

The core technology is very expensive to develop and the synergies you
get with an investment like that (in VW) is a huge advantage for us."

On hybrid Porsches, he explained

"The principles for those sort of alternative systems are not important to our
customer – I don’t think our customer cares about the way the electric motor is
hooked to the petrol motor (in a hybrid) – but that mechanism needs to be
specifically Porsche. It’s more about what the characteristics are like in the
actual application of those systems.”

Actually, EV Porsches already exist. There are a number of EV specialists, especially in the Bay Area and state of California in the USA doing EV conversions for old 911s. In Germany, Porsche tuning specialist Ruf has already unveiled the EV Ruf Greenster concept in this year's Geneva Motor Show. This little green monster has an equivalent of 360bhp power but what is more amazing is the 950Nm of torque! Try beating that!



Image from Autoblog Green.

Being a manufacturer, Porsche will not be able to respond to such change as fast as an independent tuner. Ruf is just swooping in to fill in the void for niche EV sports cars. There is an increasing demand for EV sports cars, not for their environmental credentials but because being green is the new cool. This is especially true in state side, as reflected by the choice of cars for Hollywood celebrities.