Porsche’s Mission X Concept Is a Hypercar Dream

Porsche has a solid 75 years of sports car manufacturing under its belt, and to celebrate that, it unveiled the Mission X concept, an all-electric hypercar that could go into production at some point in the near future.

Like the 959, Carrera GT and 918 Spyder, the Mission X concept is another milestone marking the brand’s evolution in performance car development.

Right off the bat, its Le Mans race car influence immediately jumps out. The car’s exterior looks less carved and more like a sheet of carbon fiber was melted over the platform. Its cockpit bubble sits low between the four outstretched wheels, with doors that flair out when opened to make it decidedly easier to egress than its racy inspiration. At the front of the ample front wheel hubs are LED modules that are a reinterpretation of the four-point headlight graphic that has been a signature Porsche design element.

Exterior of Porsche’s Mission X. — It would include doors that flair out when opened.

Porsche/S.BOGNER

Behind the Wheel of a Porsche at Le Mans With Two-Time Winner Patrick Long

Long drove a Porsche 911 GT3-RS to wins in 2004 and 2007

All in all, it’s a very elegant interpretation of Porsche’s 917, 908 and 919 race cars. Those numerical designators might not mean much to anyone outside of motorsport fans, but you would recognize the iconic shapes of these cars if you saw them. All of them are translated here in a modern road-legal concept.

Uniquely, the Mission X is an all-electric platform with its battery installed like a mid-engined sports car, like the Lamborghini Huracán and the current-generation Chevrolet Corvette. Hypothetical power figures haven’t been shared, but Porsche says if the Mission X goes into production, it would have a power-to-weight ratio of one horsepower to 2.2 lbs, which, in short, means very, very fast.

How fast? Porsche wants any running version of Mission X to be the fastest road-going vehicle around the Nürburgring Norshchleife, the grueling 12-mile track that’s become the benchmark of success for performance vehicles. To handle all of this, the slippery body would need to produce more downforce than the 911 GT3 RS, its hardcore turn-key racer for the road that pushes 900 pounds of force onto it at 124 mph and 1,895 lbs when its upwards of 177 mph.

Thanks to a 900-volt system architecture, Mission X would be equally as fast at the plug-in station, with the ability to charge twice as fast as the all-electric Taycan Turbo S, which takes about an hour and a half at a fast-charge station.

How likely are we to see the Mission X come to life? It’s hard to judge, but the X has the appearance of a practical exercise than a just-for-fun fantasy. It’s also worth noting that there was a previous concept by Porsche called the Mission E and we know that car by a different name, the Taycan. If you want to see the Mission X on the road, make like Ted Lasso and “Believe.”