SPY PICS: Porsche Mission E takes shape

Porsche's Mission E, the electric vehicle that poses the most immediate and direct threat to the Tesla Model S, has been snapped testing in Weissach, Germany.

And this time it's an actual pre-production model – not a cobbled-together mule – although the decoy exhaust pipes are unlikely to make it into production!

The race to go all-electric is heating up, with Jaguar announcing this week that its I-Pace electric SUV will reach global markets  ahead of Porsche's electric variant of the Macan SUV and the Mission E, both the Porsches expected to enter production in 2019.

As the pictures here hint, the Mission E will be smaller than the Panamera and was originally believed to be a conventional sibling to the big sedan, reported under the working title of Pajun ('Panamera Junior'). Perhaps, in fact, Porsche decided to drop the conventional variants, leaving just the electric variant – the Mission E – on the drawing board.

Whatever the case, the Mission E will be very close in dimensions to the Tesla Model S. Like the Model S, the Mission E won't lack for performance, with some speculating that the electric Porsche will boast a 0-100km/h time of 3.5 seconds. That's still a bit slower than the fastest Model S, but the Porsche is expected to better the Tesla for electric range, with over 530km rumoured.

According to further reports, the Mission E will feature an 800-Volt electric system that will recharge to 80 per cent of available range within 15 minutes, but will require specialised hardware to do that.