Tesla came out swinging this week with a surprise announcement of their new full electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster 2. This is an open top four-seater four-wheel-drive runabout with some seriously impressive statistics. I’ll remain skeptical of Tesla’s claims until they’ve been proven by a third party, but they say the Roadster 2 will sprint from 0-60 in just 1.9 seconds and shoot through the quarter mile in a neck-snapping 8.8 second run. Further, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, claims that the car has a top speed in excess of 250 miles per hour. Perhaps most incredibly, Musk promises a 620 mile range from this super do-it-all car. Is this an indication of the kind of performance we can expect from a full-electric Porsche sports car?
To me, it’s looking increasingly like Porsche’s Mission E will be essentially an electric Panamera. That’s something to get excited about, to be certain, but isn’t quite the four-door EV sports car we were teased. The electric sedan that’s been spotted testing is going to fight head-to-head with Tesla’s own Model S. Mission E for Porsche is about more than one model, however, as I believe they’re planning a number of new EV and hybrid models, including variants of the next generation 911. We’ve already seen what we believe is a hybrid GT2 RS testing at Monza, but could Porsche be planning a full electric version of their iconic sports car, or perhaps even a brand new model to take on this Tesla sports coupe?
The Roadster 2 already has a lot of aspects that Porsche currently uses in its super 911 Turbo S. Like the roadster, the Turbo S seats four, has all wheel drive, and is available with an open top (Though as a cabriolet, not a targa-style removable roof, as awesome as that would be). If Porsche wants the highest-performance 911 model to produce a quicker 0-60 time than what the Turbo S currently produces, they may have to switch to electric power for instant torque delivery. What do you think? Are you ready for an electric 911, or would you still buy your performance Porsche as an internal combustion engine model given the choice, even if it weren’t the fastest one?
