Porsche knows that the overwhelming majority of EV charging happens at the home of the owner, from the comfort of their own garage. With Porsche claiming the upcoming Mission E will have a range of 310 miles, the vast majority of driving trips can be handled by owners charging overnight from their own home. That said, there are still some customers who may be anxious about the range of their potential pure EV Porsche purchase. As a way of assuaging some of that concern, Porsche will be installing rapid recharge stations for Mission E customers to use at any of Porsche’s 189 dealerships nationwide. The high powered chargers are based around an 800v infrastructure that is said to allow up to 250 miles of range in under 20 minutes of charging.
While Porsche has partnered with other manufacturers in Europe to build their fast-charging infrastructure, here in the US Porsche will be on their own to make this happen. That said, it is possible that other Volkswagen Group member companies will commit to a similar strategy in coming years. Audi is said to be launching an eTron sedan based on the Mission E platform, which may also find its way into Bentley and perhaps Lamborghini use as well. If those companies were to expand this Turbo Charge network to their own dealer networks, this would add more than 290 Audi dealers, more than 30 Bentley dealers, and more than 30 Lamborghini dealers, bringing the total to over 550 chargers in the US.
Porsche vs. Tesla
Porsche’s primary competitor in this luxury EV market, California’s Tesla, has a head start on their Supercharger charging network, which was introduced in 2012. Tesla currently has over 400 stations in the US, usually located near interstates, in parking lots, or at destinations, such as hotels. Porsche dealer locations are primarily built in a way to serve as many high-density areas as possible. You wouldn’t find a Porsche dealership within an hour of Coalinga, California, for example, but Tesla has a bank of chargers there, strategically located at a steak restaurant right off the I-5. Much like the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD format war circa 2006, the Tesla Supercharger vs. Porsche Turbo Charge war is about to begin.
Klaus Zellmer, president and CEO, Porsche Cars North America:
“To meet customer expectations, one of our priorities will be to equip our 189 dealerships with 800-volt DC fast-chargers. We are also working with other organizations on a network of DC fast-chargers for cities and highways. And this is in addition to the thousands of lower-voltage (Level 2 and DC Fast) charging stations that already exist around the country.”