Porsche’s head of design says that future electric vehicles (EVs) will allow significantly more freedom in terms of design and packaging than the current generation.
The German brand’s shift towards EV has resulted in the likes of the Porsche Taycan and the new electric Macan, nonetheless, from the outside looking in, both vehicles look like traditional cars with almost identical proportions to what one may expect from an internal combustion engine vehicle.
According to Michael Mauer, who has been chief designer for Porsche for almost 20 years, this will soon change as EV components get smaller and allow for better packaging.
“Maybe in the next 10 or 15 years, the freedom for the designers will become bigger since all these [EV] components will require less space in the car,” Mauer told the Australian media last week.
As an example, the new electric Porsche Macan has grown to 4784mm (from 4726mm) in length and 1938mm in width (from 1927mm) with the height also going up by 16mm to 1622mm. The biggest increase though, has been the wheelbase at 2893mm (from 2807mm) to allow the battery housing in the floor.
Asked why EV’s are growing instead of changing shape, Mauer explained that the current generation of EV packaging requirements are similar if not bigger in terms of packaging than traditional cars.
“Right now the situation is not yet there, since one component like the engine or the exhaust system is replaced by other components that are still as big as the old components or even bigger.
“We talk about batteries and the additional challenges that we as a sports car brands [need], as a designer I believe that we need a kind of dramatic height-to-width ratio.
“So the proportion is so important that due to the fact that the batteries are heavy, you should be able to create this low centre of gravity in the floor.
“Then you put the people on top of it and that drives the height of the car which for a sports car brand, is really challenging. So, again, there will be more freedom in the near future. Maybe in the next 10 to 15 years. Right now it is one component replaced by the other.”
As for how quickly and how radically the next generation of EVs will change design, Mauer believes it will be small progress for luxury brands that need to maintain their brand identity.
“I think for more premium or luxury-oriented brands. I would not say evolutionary design strategy is the right path. But definitely not this kind of with every next model has a revolution in terms of design.”
According to Mauer, the biggest change will come from the next-generation of batteries such as solid state, which are expected to take up significantly less space while providing equal or great energy density.
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