What the Mission R Concept Tells Us About Porsche's Electric Future
What the Mission R Concept Tells Us About Porsche's Electric Future
As the head of Porsche's sports cars division, Dr. Frank Walliser has one of the most enviable jobs in the auto industry. He's responsible for two perennial sports-car benchmarks, the 718 and 911, and tasked with steering these models into an uncertain future. He's also a great person to chat with, and during a far-reaching conversation at the L.A. Auto Show, Walliser gave us a glimpse into the future of Porsche's icons. What the Mission R Concept Tells Us About Porsche's Electric Future
Porsche is going electric. The Taycan is selling strongly, and an all-electric Macan is in the works. Earlier this year, the company also showed off the Mission R, a concept electric race car that bears a significant resemblance to the 718 Cayman. If you want a general idea of where the Boxster and Cayman are headed, check out the Mission R. What the Mission R Concept Tells Us About Porsche's Electric Future
As head of Porsche's Motorsport department at the time, Walliser helped define the basic concept behind the Mission R four years ago. Since taking over the sports car division in 2019, he hasn't been directly involved with the Mission R, but he's thrilled with how it came out. "Just look at it," he says, with obvious pride. What the Mission R Concept Tells Us About Porsche's Electric Future
Walliser says concept cars like this are a great way to inspire designers and engineers to find new innovations. "But this is not that futuristic," he points out. "A car can look like this. It's driving, it can go on the race track already. There is proof it can work. Maybe we could not afford one thing or the other, or it's difficult to get it into series production. But in general, it's not so visionary that you would say, 'this could never happen.'"
The Mission R eschews the typical EV "skateboard" layout of placing the batteries in the floor. Instead, the concept's 80-kWh lithium-ion batteries sit behind the driver, roughly where the internal-combustion engine lives in today's 718. In an interview with Autocar, Porsche R&D chief Michael Steiner explained the advantages of this "mid-battery" layout. Dr. Walliser explains the concept further.
"For a sports car, it's very important to have a low seating position," Walliser says. While a skateboard layout puts the weight of the batteries low in the chassis, the center of gravity rises as soon as a driver and passenger sit in the car. So while putting the batteries behind the driver might fly in the face of accepted practice, there's logic in the decision.
So What the Mission R Concept Tells Us About Porsche's Electric Future
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