Automotive News Europe - April 2020 - 13

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

Q&A

UESTIONS FOR

Michael Steiner
Does that mean there will be identicallooking Macans and the only difference is that one won't have a tailpipe?
No, we will considerably differentiate
them in terms of design so that it's possible to immediately identify which is
which. We believe that during the transition to EVs customers want to be seen
as driving electric.

Michael Steiner
❚ Porsche Board
Member for R&D
❚ 55
❚ Started current
job in 2016

Will you discontinue the Panamera's
MSB rear-wheel-drive platform?
The Panamera platform is not old, it
debuted in 2016. We still have a lot of
ideas for it in terms of infotainment and
connectivity. But there is currently no
plan to replace this platform, instead,
we want to keep it fresh and attractive
as long as possible.

orsche is electrifying its model
range. In the interest of transparency, should the company disclose its
fleet CO2 emissions figure?
There are markets where regulators assess us separately, in China for example,
while in Europe we are pooled together
with Volkswagen. While we keep an account internally, it doesn't make sense
for individual brands such as Porsche to
publish separate figures in the latter case.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has attempted
to beat the Porsche Taycan electric
sedan's Nürburgring lap time record
with the Model S. Is Tesla a rival?
Although people like to play us off
against each other, we do not consider
Tesla to be a direct rival. With the Model
3, it's clear that they are more aggressively targeting the volume segment.
How far ahead is Tesla in terms of its
battery technology?
Tesla employs round cells, a slightly different chemistry and another cooling
concept, all of which have their specific

APRIL 2020

advantages and disadvantages. In our
opinion the kind of high battery capacities
you might find installed in a Model S are
not ideal in terms of sustainability. We believe in smaller, lighter and therefore less
expensive batteries that can be recharged
more quickly. It's not our aspiration to be
the leader in electric range. Also, while we
don't currently plan to develop another
combustion engine architecture, that
doesn't mean that we cannot maintain and
improve models using the existing ones.
That is valid for the Macan, because we
cannot expect electric mobility to advance
in all regions at the same pace, so we currently anticipate that in specific segments
there will be a need to offer both a combustion engine and a full-electric or plug-in
hybrid version in parallel. Customers and
regulators will determine how long it will
be necessary to maintain this.

"We do not
consider Tesla
to be a direct rival."

What factors will make your forthcoming SPE electric platform unique?
We are convinced that very sporty cars,
and roadsters in particular, need to be really flat. Drivers of a 911 or 718 want to
sit as close as possible to the road. While
electric cars have a low center of gravity
thanks to their batteries being installed in
the floor, that is not the only relevant aspect. To experience that sports car feeling it's also about your body's own center
of gravity and how high up you are seated. That's why we want to develop such
a platform, but there has not been a final
decision on this matter.
How attractive are fuel cell models to
Porsche, considering that the stacks
are lighter than batteries?
We continue to examine it, but at the
moment this technology is not suited to
Porsche. For one the typical output of a
stack is about 100 kilowatts, so if you
want more power you still need to include
a large battery to provide peak output.
That means you need even more room for
their installation. Secondly, the system's
overall energy efficiency is very poor because it takes a lot of electricity to split
water into hydrogen, distribute it to fuel
stations and convert it back to electricity.
-- Christiaan Hetzner

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Automotive News Europe - April 2020

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