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?
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No, because as lithe as this car looks, it is a muscle car that will be good for street and awful for track. To make an EV a good track car, you would ruin what would make it a good road car. It's the kind of car that impresses the sorts of people who ask track junkies about their top speed on a race track. Porsche builds well rounded cars that can steer and brake, with acceleration and top speed just a function of building the best, most enjoyable everyday cars that can be flogged on track in a repeatable fashion. One only has to look at the PDK launch control philosophy- no limits, all day, every day.
I disagree completely. This thing is built for the track. You must have missed the point about the fact it will have 3 motors; 2 in the rear for torque steering(!), not to mention the fact that it has over 7,000 ft/lb of torque (no typo). It is going to be a road and track monster, and if Porsche doesn't get their EV 911 on the market or at least out in prototype in the next few years, I am going to seriously consider buying one of these.
BTW: Here's an AC Cobra kit car EV conversion using Tesla motor and rear end subclip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPaceYswN4
Notice how that instant torque works extremely well for him on the track.
I think Nick's points stand, Porsche builds cars that are well rounded and can be used quite well on the track with a little preparation.
"This thing is built for the track"
Well that would be a first for Tesla. None of their other cars seem to be even able to make a single hot-lap around a track without going into limp mode.
But hey, they have announced some amazing stats for this new model, so even if some are a bit misleading (that's *wheel* torque) or questionable (1000km range) hopefully they can deliver an amazing car in a few years time.