Porsche races to the future with electric motors, natural fiber composites

 

Motor racing isn’t exactly the most environmental of activities, given that there are cars and trucks speeding along tracks burning fuel in abundance. As automotive OEMs work to burnish their “green” credentials, the justification of motorsports becomes more difficult.

That is, unless the “motor” isn’t a 2.4-liter direct-injection twin-turbo V6 but electric motors like the Porsche Mission R, which has a 320 kilowatt (kW) motor on the front axle and the 480 kW motor on the rear axle and can go from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds).

The Mission R is a concept. For now.

When introducing the car at the IAA MOBILITY show in Munich, Germany, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG Oliver Blume said, “The concept study is our vision of all-electric customer motorsports. The Mission R embodies everything that makes Porsche strong: performance, design and sustainability.”

Michael Mauer, head of Style Porsche, added, “the car is packed to the gills with signs that hint of a future production model, and that, of course, means pure racing!”

But it isn’t just about being an electric car. Porsche plans to be carbon-neutral by 2030, so the Mission E execution is part of its decarbonization approach.

To reduce mass while ensuring driver safety, Porsche engineers developed what they call an “exoskeleton,” a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) cage structure. There are six polycarbonate segments around the CFRP cage so that it can be viewed from the exterior and that provide greater visibility for the driver.

A real green play is the use of natural fiber-reinforced plastic (NFRP) for the doors, front and rear wings, sills, side panels and center section. Beyond the exterior, the NFRP is also being used to produce the seat shell.

The fibers being used are flax, which is obtained through a collaboration between the automaker, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research (Fraunhofer WKI) and material supplier Bcomp (Fribourg, Switzerland). According to Porsche, while the flax is obtained through farming, there is no “conflict with the cultivation of food crops.”

Further, one of the benefits for the ecological checklist is that the production of the fibers occurs with 85% less CO₂ than is the case when producing carbon fibers.

Even the tires of Mission R, which were specifically developed for the vehicle by Michelin (Clermont-Ferrand, France), are made entirely with bio-based and renewable materials.

Michael Steiner, member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG notes, “Motorsports of the future will be more electric, more digital and more connected. And it must become more sustainable.”

Yes, they’re going to build it — or something much like it — sooner or later. How could they not?