Porsche to invest $9.4 billion in hybrids and electric vehicles

Porsche has announced it is doubling its existing financial commitment to electrified vehicle technology with a planned €6 billion ($A9.4 billion) investment by the end of 2022 – including €500 million ($A782 million) for the development of variants and derivatives of the upcoming production version of the four-door Mission E.

The German car maker had already committed €3 billion ($A4.7billion) to electromobility, but its supervisory board has now agreed to double that investment in a move set to see an extension of the number of plug-in hybrid and pure electric models offered by Porsche.

As well as the investment to be made in the development of variants and derivatives of the pure-electric Mission E due out in 2019, Porsche also plans to spend up to €1 billion ($A1.6 billion) on what is describes as the hybridization of existing models, including its iconic 911 sportscar.

Porsche chief executive officer, Oliver Blume, says a further €700 ($A1.1 billion) is earmarked for investments in technology, infrastructure and smart mobility solutions, while “several hundreds of millions (of Euros) is planned to be spent on the upgrading of existing production facilities to handle the assembly of new plug-in hybrid and pure electric Porsche models.

Porsche is presently building a new production line and paint shop at its traditional Zuffenhausen headquarters on the outskirts of Stuttgart in Germany for the production of the 441kW Mission E, and has added around 1200 new jobs.

Porsche executive board member for production, Albrecht Reimold, says initial Mission E prototypes are already in pilot production phase, ahead of the four-door liftback model going into series production in 2019, with a run of around 20,000 units.

He also hinted that a second generation of Mission E is already being considered, saying: “For the moment we are focusing on the first generation. The 911 is now in its seventh generation, with countless derivatives. Our creativity knows no limits and, naturally, we are also considering derivatives for Mission E – but one thing at a time.”

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