Porsche may not be on board with self-driving cars, but it’s certainly moving full steam ahead on plans to develop an electric car. According to a recent report from Reuters, the iconic German automaker recently said that it plans to invest approximately $1.12 billion in factory upgrades over the next few years to pave the way for Mission E production. On top of that, the company relayed its plans to create as many as 1,000 new jobs to bring its vision of an electric car to fruition.
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Though a latecomer to the EV discussion, Porsche this past September unveiled its plans to make a splash in a market currently dominated by Tesla. Porsche’s electric car plans center on its Mission E concept, a sleek car with 600 horsepower, fast acceleration, an ambitious driving range of 310 miles on a single charge and an even more ambitious re-charging time of 15 minutes.
If things go according to plan, Porsche hopes to have the Mission E out on the road by 2020.
“With Mission E, we are making a clear statement about the future of the brand,” company chairman Wolfgang Porsche said a few months back. “Even in a greatly changing motoring world, Porsche will maintain its front-row position with this fascinating sports car.”
In conjunction with the all-electric Mission E, Porsche also has plans to release a hybrid version of its iconic Porsche 911 as early as 2018.
At the same time, it’s not as if Tesla is exactly sitting back and taking it easy. Model X production is primed to ramp up, construction on the Gigafactory is ongoing, and the highly anticipated Model 3 will be unveiled for the first time this coming March. What’s more, a recent report suggests that the long-touted sticker price of the Model 3 ($35,000) may in fact be closer to $25,000 once incentives are taken into account.
