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Porsche has celebrated its 75th birthday with this Mission X electric concept. A production version appears highly likely, targeting the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record in the process.
Porsche has celebrated its 75th anniversary as a sports car-maker by unveiling the Mission X – an electric hypercar which could be sold in global showrooms from 2027.
Unveiled overnight, the Mission X concept is the next model in the lineage of Porsche supercars – from the 1983 959, 2003 Carrera GT and 2013 918 Spyder – and completes the transition from petrol to hybrid to electric power in its flagship models.
If past overseas media reports are a guide, the Mission X is highly likely to go into series production.
Using the four-year gap between the unveiling of past Porsche ‘Mission’ concepts and the production versions as a guide, the hypercar could be in showrooms in 2027.
In its media release Porsche laid out its bold ambitions for the Mission X, which includes the hypercar becoming “the fastest road-legal vehicle around the Nürburgring Nordschleife”.
The current Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record for a production car was set by a Mercedes-AMG One in November 2022, with the championship-winning hybrid F1 engine-powered hypercar completing a lap of the 20.832km circuit in six minutes and 35.183 seconds.
While Porsche did not disclose specific power and weight figures, it claims the Mission X will produce approximately one metric horsepower (0.735kW) per kilogram – translating to a power-to-weight ratio of at least 735kW/tonne.
For context, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS – which has 386kW and weighs nearly 1340kg – has a power-to-weight ratio of 289kW/tonne.
According to Porsche, the production-ready Mission X will be based on a 900-volt electric-car platform, which it claims can allow the hypercar to charge twice as quickly as the 800-volt Taycan Turbo S.
For electric-car chargers which can support 800 volts – and 350kW – Porsche says the Taycan Turbo S can complete a five to 80 per cent charge in 22.5 minutes.
The batteries are placed behind the passengers, where the engine in a mid-engined petrol hypercar would sit.
The German car-maker also claimed the Mission X will “achieve downforce values that are well in excess of those delivered by the current 911 GT3 RS”, which is capable of generating 860kg of downforce at 285km/h.
From the photos included in Porsche’s announcement, it appears the Mission X will aim to produce a majority of its downforce under the car through ‘ground-effect’ aerodynamics – which suck the car closer to the road – based on its massive air tunnels which exit at the rear bumper.
Additional familiar design cues include Porsche’s four-point LED headlights (now mounted vertically) and ‘scissor’ opening doors (inspired by the company’s 917 racing car).
This particular Mission X concept car is finished in Rocket Metallic paint with an Andalusia Brown and Kalahari Grey interior.
Inside, the seats include racing harnesses, while the driver controls the car with a rectangular steering wheel, placed in front of a digital instrument cluster.
If past Porsche Mission concepts are a guide, the showroom version of the hypercar may arrive in 2027.
In 2015, Porsche revealed the Mission E concept car, which later went into production four years later as the Taycan in 2019.
In 2021, the Porsche Mission R was revealed as a preview of the electric Cayman. Porsche is expected to launch the battery-powered production model in 2025, four years after the concept was revealed.
The Mission X is just one of Porsche’s anniversary announcements, as the car-maker celebrates 75 years since its first sports car – the 356 – rolled off the production line in 1948.
Last week, the company revealed the latest iteration of its iconic badge, which is due to be fitted to its production models from the end of 2023.
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