Electric vehicles are the order of the day, we know that, but true motor enthusiasts are missing something… the roar of engines, right? That sound that gives you goosebumps as soon as you turn the key, that excites… and that electric cars do not make. Well, Porsche wants the electric car to advance at full speed, but there is a question that still has no answer: how do you turn something silent and clinical into a machine that excites?
For Porsche, that has been its real headache. For decades, they have sold character, sound, vibration, everything mechanical and combustion, and now they face a world where cars no longer roar… And how to do it?
Well, ignoring brands like Ferrari and Tesla, Porsche has focused on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N (yes, Hyundai, we are also surprised), and it turns out that it has been the direct inspiration for the future Porsche 718, which will be electric.
The Taycan was a success…
In 2019, Porsche launched an electric car, an eco-friendly experiment but it accelerated just like any Porsche in its best times. Sales were much better than expected, but the side effect was evident and it is that not everyone wants a car that goes fast if it does not make noise.
The buyer of a 718 is looking for something else. They want sensations, noise, physical response, that thing that forces you to smile uncontrollably when you shift gears, and an electric does not give that… So Porsche had to do something, look for a solution between emotion and electrification.
A fun electric car
And while many obsessed over reaching 100 km/h, Hyundai had a better idea. Why couldn’t an electric be mischievous? And they decided to work on the Ioniq 5 N, 650 horsepower, (fake) sound and gear simulation, everything the industry wanted.
By imitating what a combustion car does, it activates parts of the brain that instant torque does not awaken, and that is what made this vehicle steal the show. Driving it was, according to Frank Moser (responsible for the 718 and 911) “revelatory”, someone from Porsche saying that a Hyundai is incredible. It is, in fact, incredible.
The next electric Porsche
Porsche does not want to copy Hyundai, but it has been inspired, let’s say it like that. The fact that the future is electric does not have to forbid cars from exciting or impressing, so they have noted what made the Ioniq 5 N so incredible, and one of the things they are going to do is place the batteries behind the driver to replicate the balance of a mid-engine.
Regarding sound, relax, fanatics, because there will be simulated noises and small “power drops” that will trick the brain into feeling that adrenaline that combustion cars give. They call it “emotional engineering”, but in reality it is fiction.
The engine is no longer the important thing
For decades, Porsche was the sound of the boxer engine, the smell of hot gasoline and the feeling that the car always wanted more and you did too, but now the engine is no longer the protagonist, and surprisingly it is not bad.
Porsche is looking for a new experience for the driver,
What they are looking for is to keep the Porsche experience, even if the mechanical heart disappears (and the driver believes it is still there), and in that they have indeed based themselves on Hyundai, only that they have taken its formula and improved it. It had to be said, and it was said.
The future does not have to be boring
We have gotten used to thinking that electric cars are “plain fish”, soft diet, but there is also a future for engine purists, even if it is artificial and at first very strange. It is the real “trust the process”.
Electricity, yes, but with soul.
Porsche has understood that the future is not only batteries and range, but sensations, so let’s go for this “epic” future that one of the greats of the motor industry has proposed (copied), right?!