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posted by janrinok on Wednesday September 07 2016, @02:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the my-whoosh-is-bigger-than-yours dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

FRANKFURT -- The gleaming white Porsche with menacing black trim took less than 8 minutes to complete the Nurburgring's demanding Nordschleife circuit. The result was respectable but not spectacular for a 600-hp beast that sprints from 0 to 62 mph in a little more than 3 seconds.

Unlike the Panamera production car, which can easily beat its lap time, the Mission E concept doesn't have camshafts, pistons or valves to mix air and fuel in a combustion chamber or a spark plug to ignite it. It runs on a current of pure electrons supplied by a lithium ion battery, and it can almost fully recharge itself within 15 minutes.

The Tesla Model S doesn't come anywhere close to those specs -- which is the point.

Porsche's 1 billion euro ($1.12 billion) gamble to lure Tesla owners from their beloved electric car is just one example of how much premium European automakers are investing to try and match their Silicon Valley-based rival. Tesla's zero-emissions sports sedan has made Europe's finest automakers look woefully behind the times in an area they typically dominate: technology. The question is whether established brands can win back the hearts and minds of car buyers seeking the next big thing.

Germany's best known sports car maker promises its Mission E, which was teased at last year's Frankfurt auto show, will be "an electric Porsche that deserves the name." That means it will be consistently fast over an extended period with no loss of performance despite repeated accelerating and braking. It is supposed to be the first zero-emissions car worthy of being taken to the racetrack.

Porsche, however, will need years before it can mass produce and sell its electric sports car at a decent profit. Meanwhile, Tesla will continue to deliver tens of thousands of its vaunted sedans and SUVs every year to wealthy progressives around the world, most likely at a loss. "I wish we had put that car on the road and not Tesla," confided a senior engineer at Porsche, not a brand typically prone to technological envy. "We have to earn money at the end of the day though."

[...] Moreover, reputational problems may catch up to it. Allegations have been leveled that Tesla tried to hide suspension flaws in the Model S from the public by forcing customers to sign nondisclosure agreements. More recently, a fatal accident has put its Autopilot in a negative spotlight. Also, when the Model 3 eventually debuts, Tesla will target more demanding consumers, who are not likely to be as forgiving when it comes to the inherent trade-offs of an electric car.

A senior automotive executive at Bosch is convinced that sooner or later Musk will not be able to maintain this startup style showmanship over substance: "At some point as they grow customers won't accept this and Tesla will have to adopt a zero-tolerance approach."


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  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:33AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:33AM (#399064) Journal

    The 'news' element is that at least one Tesla car crashed while in 'autopilot' mode, giving rise to questions about the vehicle's safety. The second crash in the Netherlands is investigating whether the 'autopilot' mode was being used in that accident too.

    You are correct in your claims about vehicle safety in general, although I suspect that the figures quoted were just for the US(?), but automatically driven cars are very much an up and coming technology and are being trialled in several countries. Any doubts as to their safety will affect businesses, jobs and transport and are, I would suggest, still news.

    Why countries are not doing more to improve road safety of existing vehicles is another story altogether but, while the public seem to accept the large number of deaths as the cost of having the convenience of easy travel, I doubt anyone will do anything more to change the current situation.

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  • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Thursday September 08 2016, @09:18AM

    by BasilBrush (3994) on Thursday September 08 2016, @09:18AM (#399098)

    What we need to see is fatalities per car/mile driven for Tesla vs other EVs and vs ICE cars. Anything else is just anecdotes.

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    Hurrah! Quoting works now!