Daily Slideshow: Electric Cayman Defies Petrolheads By Doing 0-62 in 3.3 Seconds

The Future is Sporty

When horseless carriages started beating the horsed kind you can bet there were people bemoaning the replacement of the familiar sound of equine hooves pounding the ground with the terrible racket made by internal combustion engines. If Porsche has its way that wonderful racket is the only thing we are going to miss once electricity takes the baton from petroleum. To prove it, Porsche built the Cayman E-Volution, a working concept vehicle, and showed it at the recent Electric Vehicle Symposium in Stuttgart. According to the company, it provides "an early indication of just how sporty Porsche believes e-mobility can be."

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The Future is Fast

Porsche reports that the Cayman E-Volution will do 0-100km/h (62 mph) in 3.3 seconds, compare that with a 3.9 second to 100 km/h time for the current 718 Cayman GTS. The electric Cayman has a range, likely computed using the somewhat generous EU NEDC standard, of only 200 kilometers (124 miles), but offers ultra-quick charging with Porsche's new 800-volt charging system. The Cayman E-Volution gives us a glimpse of what's in store, a step along the way to the planned 2019 introduction of their first exclusively electric vehicle offering, the Mission E.

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The Future is full of 'E's

According to Porsche, the Mission E will have stretched that range out to over 500 kilometers (310 miles) and will be capable of achieving an 80% charge in a mere 15 minutes. If you try on sunglasses, use the restroom, pour yourself some coffee, and microwave a delicious multi-mart burrito you'll be charged and ready to go before you even know it. And you'll be covering the distances between charging stations as fast as ever— the Mission E is slated to put out 670 horsepower, equaling the 0-100km/h time of the Cayman E-Volution, before topping out at a factory-limited speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). The Mission E will use the same 800-volt charging system that the Cayman E-Volution showcased in Stuttgart.

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The Future Still has Turbo Charging

Porsche dubbed their new charging system Porsche Turbo Charging, a system Porsche Engineering co-developed with ADS-TEC, and the automaker's first accumulator-based fast charging system. According to Porsche it "is particularly suitable for use in areas where the distribution system is subject to power limitations. The system is to be used as a supplement to high-power fast charging network with medium voltage connection," and will support a charging capacity of up to 320kW for a single car, or twice 160 kW—compare that with the 480-volt Tesla Supercharger system, which provides 120 kW per vehicle.

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The Future is Still a Few Years Away

Porsche plans for its Turbo Charging systems to start popping up along major European motorways starting in 2020. The charging networks are being developed and built, for the time being just in major European autoroutes, as part of a collaboration between Porsche, Audi, Daimler, BMW, and Ford. The future, it seems, will answer that timeless question: which comes first, the electric chicken or the charging egg.

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