Porsche unveils electric car at Frankfurt Auto Show

Porsche yesterday unveiled its all-electric Mission E concept car at the Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany yesterday.

A four-door, four-seat luxury performance sedan with futuristic 911 design cues, Mission E would be the first all-electric model Porsche would offer to the public.

According to Porsche, though the vehicle was a concept car, it was firmly based in reality and was expected to arrive in showrooms within five years. It also provided a window into the future of all-electric cars - more range, faster charging and more speed.

With a debut alongside the latest iteration of the classic 911, the Mission E was meant to convey the message that performance and efficiency were not mutually exclusive.

And even as the Porsche brand, a division of Volkswagen, was one of the marquee brands in the traditional sports car world, it was not a complete stranger to electrification.

Porsche had built three Boxster E cars for public evaluation in 2011 and it currently sold three hybrid models - the Cayenne S Hybrid, Panamera S E-Hybrid and, and the upper end 918 Spyder priced at $845,000.

Up to now electric vehicles had found only patchy acceptance among buyers due to their high price tags and limited driving range and the scarcity of charging stations, though many analysts predicted sales would increase sharply by the end of the decade.

Elon Musk's Tesla, however, had been able to carve a niche for itself and had managed to stay ahead of the pack with new technology, which had extended driving range and cut costs.

Besides Porsche, Audi also showcased purely battery-powered cars at the Frankfurt auto show yesterday.

According to analysts, the impact on Tesla was not clear but even as it represented heavyweight competition for Tesla, it also boosted the credibility and cachet of the all-electric market, would to Tesla's advantage.

"It will certainly sharpen the public focus on electric vehicles and raise overall awareness. Consumers are also set to gain from growing offerings of electric cars, especially in the performance segment," said Commerzbank analyst Sascha Gommel, Reuters reported.

Following the Tesla Model S going on sale in 2012, the start-up automaker had had the market for high-end electric cars to itself, but that is changing as other automakers start launching their own models.