The Mission E fully electric sports saloon did spark a renewed interest in Porsche, especially to bring back some of its ability to leapfrog the market with new technologies and innovations.
The automaker had recently revealed that the project to mass produce the car has been fast-tracked, hoping to fill their employee list to the tune of around 1,400 new jobs to develop and manufacture it in their main plant in Zuffenhausen. The goal is 2019 for an official launch, and in between Porsche will throwing more than 1 billion Euros for it.
Currently, Porsche employs a rough total of 24,000 members of staff, and Andreas Haffner, Porsche’s director of human resources admits to the hiring process, especially on such a specialised project like this, as tough.
"One can in fact describe what is going on now as a 'war for talents'. We are in direct competition with other automakers and suppliers and IT firms in our global search for talented experts. Money alone is not enough to attract these creative minds,” he said.
The battery-powered electric car isn’t a new idea, and historically was something being explored by many separate parties well before Tesla got their hands dirty with it. However, with the recent advancements and price decreased around key components and a market that was, and still is, ripe for the taking, the electric car boom is slow motion detonation.
During its unveil at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, many saw the Mission E as a direct response to the Tesla Model S, and for good reason. The overwhelming response to it, prompted Porsche to quickly drop the ‘concept’ designation and announce their commitment to bring it to production.
However, some less cynical also pointed out that Porsche may have more offer the market than a mere worthy alternative. Working closely with their parent company, Volkswagen, the Mission E’s battery and recharging system may be a game changer, with inductive charging and fast charges that could give the car enough juice to travel 80 percent of its predicted 500km range in just 15 minutes.
After all, the eventual release of the Mission E (if that’s even its final name) will mean that vehicle electrification will have a much broader appeal because of the Porsche name, setting the stage for other entrants to pierce the global market.
The technology gained from the Mission E will surely trickle to the rest of the VW Group, as the company has stated its plan to produce up to 3 million fully-electric cars per year by 2025.
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