Porsche has unveiled the Mission X, a new electric hypercar concept, which the automaker says could be the fastest road-legal vehicle ever to do a lap around the famous Nürburgring racetrack… if it goes into series production.
Porsche says the Mission X has an “ultra high-performance, efficient electric powertrain,” but though it doesn’t give tech specs, it gives us an idea of what they might be. The design considerations for this car include these points, which we’ll break down one by one:
Be the fastest road-legal vehicle around the Nürburgring Nordschleife
Have a power-to-weight ratio of roughly one hp per 2.2 lbs
Achieve downforce values that are well in excess of those delivered by the current 911 GT3 RS
Offer significantly improved charging performance with its 900-volt system architecture and charge roughly twice as quickly as the current Porsche frontrunner, the Taycan Turbo S
The first point is Porsche’s most common benchmarking method for its vehicles. Nürburgring Nordschleife, also known as “The Green Hell,” is a famously long and difficult track that runs through the Eifel forest in Germany. Recently, Porsche has been in a battle with Tesla over whose electric car is fastest around the track, and Tesla just struck back at Porsche to take back the record this past week.
Porsche would like to get that record back, but it sounds like it’s not just throwing down the gauntlet at Tesla but at all other cars. Tesla’s new production EV record 7:25 time is respectable (slotting near the Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari Enzo, Mercedes AMG Black, and KTM X-Bow R) and is ten seconds ahead of Porsche’s previous EV record (but well behind the NIO EP9’s “production” EV lap record). However, Tesla is still nearly a minute off the plug-in hybrid Mercedes AMG One’s record of 6:30.705 for a street-legal vehicle.
But the AMG One is 1,049 hp in a 1,695 kg (3,737 lb) package. That’s powerful but also heavy, and weight is a killer in racing, especially around the curves that make up about five minutes of that six-minute Nürburgring lap. So that’s where the Mission X’s power-to-weight ratio comes in, and if Porsche meets its intentions, it’ll be a doozy.
A power-to-weight ratio of 1 horsepower per 2.2 lbs – or 1 hp/kg – is almost unheard-of, especially in road-legal vehicles. Only a few low-production hypercars have managed to achieve this feat, though most rely on forced induction (turbocharging). The Lotus Evija is the only other electric car claiming a similar power-to-weight ratio (1,970 hp in a 1,680 kg package).
High downforce is also a key component of racing, allowing cars to stick to the road better around turns at high speeds. Porsche says the Mission X will have more downforce than the GT3 RS, which is the best in the business at 409 kg (900 lbs) of downforce at 200 km/h (124 mph).
The Mission X will use active aerodynamics, so you have downforce when you need it and not when you don’t. This helps boost speeds on long straights (like the very long straight at the end of each Nürburgring lap) but also helps improve aerodynamic efficiency, which means less energy wasted, less battery needed, and more weight saved for more performance.
And lastly, Porsche wants to improve on its fast-charging performance from the Taycan, the current fastest-charging car on the road, by upgrading to a 900-volt system (like that seen on its previous Mission R concept) and doubling the Taycan’s peak 350 kW charge rate.
While we haven’t seen road cars capable of more than 350 kW, there have been proposals for 600 kW and 700 kW charging in Formula E and Electric GT racing, respectively. So if Porsche is targeting the Mission X as a racing monster, these are the numbers it would need to aim for.
The Mission X’s entire body is made of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) “exoskeleton.” CFRP is an expensive but light material that helps to keep power-to-weight ratios high. Carbon fiber body panels have been used on other EVs, namely the Tesla Roadster and CFRP in the BMW i3 and i8, and the Mission X’s forebear, the Carrera GT, had carbon fiber body panels as well.
The interior is driver-focused, with an asymmetrical design and color touches indicating such. The “yoke” steering wheel is reminiscent of racing wheels, featuring an open top for visibility, mode switches, and shift paddles (though Porsche makes no other mention of transmission in its press release).
And the battery is placed in a part of the car that we don’t see often anymore – behind the driver, instead of underneath. Most EV makers put batteries at the bottom of the car to help reduce the center of gravity, which is important for performance. But Porsche chose to put it behind the driver in the Mission X.
This means a slightly higher center-of-gravity but allows for a vehicle that is otherwise shorter – a height of 47.2 inches, just an inch and change taller than Porsche’s previous 918 and Carrera GT (and three inches taller than the original Tesla Roadster, which also carried the battery behind the driver).
It also makes for more traditional vehicle handling. Racing-focused cars are traditionally built with a mid-engine layout, where the heaviest part of the vehicle is behind the driver and in front of the rear axle. This enhances traction but reduces rotational inertia, which helps cornering ability. Housing the battery in that position will give a more traditional handling feel compared to the flat and low batteries of most road EVs these days.
Porsche has not yet committed to production officially. However, one line in its press release suggests this vehicle is likely to make its way into production in some form. Usually, concept cars make no mention of series production, but Porsche explicitly says, “If the Mission X goes into series production, then it should…” before listing the car’s capabilities. This explicit callout to series production suggests that this is more of a possibility than in the case of most concepts.
Further, the name is similar to Porsche’s Mission E, which was the concept name for what eventually became the Taycan. That concept attracted plenty of excitement and eventually made it to production, and this feels like an intentional callback.
If it were to make it to production, it would do so as the latest entry in a storied list of low-production Porsche hypercars. It started with the Porsche 959, which was designed as a Group B rally car and ended up selling about 300 units to the public. Then came the Carrera GT, a 1,500-unit line that is thought of as one of the ultimate drivers’ vehicles of all time.
And more recently, the Porsche 918 plug-in hybrid brought electrification to the world of hypercars, with only 918 units made (carrying a base price of $845k). This was the first road vehicle to break the seven-minute barrier at Nürburgring. But its power-to-weight ratio was about 0.5 hp/kg, so the Mission X offers twice the relative power as its immediate predecessor.
All of these cars commanded high prices, and given the specs of the Mission X, we can imagine it would fit more into this market than into any of Porsche’s more common mass-production vehicles.
What do you think of the Mission X concept? Will Porsche make it? Can it deliver on its promises? Do you have seven figures of cash burning a hole in your pocket and are ready to order one? Let us know in the comments below.
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Global renewable developer and energy giant RWE has halted its US offshore wind operations “for the time being” because of the “political environment” the Trump administration has created.
RWE, Germany’s biggest electricity producer, said in March that it had dialed back its US offshore wind activities. But now, CEO Marcus Krebber said in a speech transcript, which he’ll deliver at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Essen on April 30, that its US offshore wind business is now closed (but it wasn’t all bad news):
In the US, where we have stopped our offshore activities for the time being, our business in onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage has so far been developing very dynamically. At the start of this year, we reached an important milestone when our US generation capacity hit the 10 gigawatt mark. The construction of a further 4 gigawatts is secured.
He went on to say that renewables have created regional value and jobs, but that the company remains “cautious given the political developments.” RWE has introduced more stringent requirements for future US investments:
All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe harbored and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment.
About half of RWE’s installed renewable capacity is in the US, where it’s the third-largest renewable energy company through its subsidiary, RWE Clean Energy. RWE holds the rights to develop US offshore wind projects in New York, Louisiana, and California.
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RWE paid $1.1 billion for the New York lease area in 2022, where it’s meant to develop the 3 gigawatt (GW) Community Offshore Wind with the UK’s National Grid. Community Offshore Wind was projected to come online in the early 2030s and expected to power more than a million homes.
The developer paid $5.6 billion for the Louisiana lease in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 as the lone bidder for development rights, and the Canopy Offshore Wind project off Northern California was not expected to be completed for another decade.
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his allies have raked in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over the past two days from the president’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency token, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company.
The surge came after a Wednesday announcement in which the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.
“Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The event, which is black tie optional and hosted at the president’s private club in the Washington area, is scheduled for May 22, with a reception for the top 25 holders. A “VIP White House Tour” will take place the following day, the site says. The website also hosts an active leaderboard displaying the usernames of top buyers.
The $TRUMP memecoin jumped more than 50% on the dinner news, boosting its total market value to $2.7 billion. It was met with fierce criticism from some of Trump’s political opponents who said the move was further evidence that the president was using crypto to enrich himself. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent Trump critic, wrote on X that the sale was “the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”
Roughly 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the project’s website. Since its launch in January, trading activity has generated about $324.5 million in trading fees for insiders, Chainalysis found. These fees are generated through the token’s built-in mechanism that routes a percentage of each trade to wallets controlled by the project — wallets that, according to the website, are linked to the coin’s creators.
Memecoins, often referred to as meme tokens, are a subset of digital assets that use blockchain technology and derive their value largely from internet culture, memes and social media hype rather than from an underlying utility or asset. The originators of memecoins can make fees when their coins are bought and sold.
They have grown in popularity in recent years as speculative assets, with some coins including dogecoin and fartcoin amassing total market values in excess of $1 billion.
Most of the $TRUMP supply remains locked under a three-year vesting plan, with coins gradually becoming available over time. Lockups like these are meant to protect investors by preventing insiders from cashing out all at once — a scheme commonly known in the crypto world as a “rug pull.” Vesting schedules aim to give retail buyers confidence that early holders won’t overwhelm the market and tank the token’s value.
Still, the dinner contest is being viewed by critics as an unusually explicit attempt to monetize presidential access.
As CNBC reported Friday, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are urging the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether the promotion constitutes “pay to play” corruption.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The company behind the memecoin also did not respond to a request for comment.
Delaney Marsco, the director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit focused on campaign finance and government accountability, told NBC News the coin and dinner contest amounted to an unprecedented ethics breach — though it is unlikely to be illegal.
“Criminal conflicts of interest statutes don’t apply to the President,” she said. “That has allowed him to go against decades of of norms that every modern president since Carter has adhered to, which is to divest your financial interests, rid yourself of your businesses, and kind of go in to the presidency with a clean financial slate so that no one could accuse you of manipulating policy decisions or using your position in order to enrich yourself.”
“The fact that he is not barred by the law from having these financial interests like this meme coin allows him to engage in a lot of seemingly corrupt activity. It has the appearance of a pay to play, so the President is apparently selling access to himself,” Marsco added.
Molly White, an independent crypto researcher, told NBC News that the leaderboard only shows top $TRUMP holders — and then only by their chosen screen name, making it difficult to identify who is paying to potentially join the dinner.
Schiff and Warren have cited public reports showing that some $TRUMP investors have ties to foreign exchanges or received funds from crypto platforms banned in the U.S., including Binance.
White also noted that at least one top $TRUMP owner has an account on Binance, a cryptocurrency company that doesn’t allow American users.
Trump was elected with significant help from the cryptocurrency industry, which poured tens of millions of dollars into the 2024 election, outpacing corporate donations from traditional sectors like banking and oil. After opposing digital assets during his first term, Trump pivoted in 2024 to campaign as a champion of cryptocurrency, casting Democrats as hostile to innovation and as advocating for tighter regulation.
The $TRUMP token itself offers no product or service, according to the project’s website. It is part of a broader push by the Trump family into digital assets, despite the market’s volatility and regulatory risks.
In addition to the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, the family is backing World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture that has raised $550 million across two token sales since last October. Buyers are barred from reselling their tokens and receive no share of profits — but a Trump-affiliated entity is entitled to 75% of net revenue, including token sale proceeds.
Together, these projects have created new streams of revenue for Trump and his inner circle at a time when regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency has weakened sharply under his administration.
It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month.
Drive Electric Earth Month is an offshoot of Drive Electric Week, a long-running annual tradition hosting meetups mostly in the US, but also occasionally in other countries. It started as Drive Electric Earth Day, but since not every event can happen on the same day, they went ahead and extended it to encompass “Earth Month” events that happen across the month of April. It’s all organized by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.
Events consist of general Earth Day-style community celebrations, EV Ride & Drives where you can test drive several EVs in one place, and opportunities to talk to EV owners and ask them questions about what it’s like to live with an EV, away from the pressure of a dealership.
But the bulk of the events happened on the weekends surrounding Earth Day, April 22, so there were several last weekend and will be even more this upcoming weekend.
There are plenty of events in the big cities where you’d expect, but Plug In America wanted to highlight a few of the events in smaller places around the country. Here’s a sampling of upcoming events:
Big Island EV – Cruise and Picnic in Waimea, HI on April 26, 10am-1pm – EV drivers will congregate in various places around the Big Island (Kona, Waimea, Waikoloa and Hilo), then drive up Saddle Road to the Gil Kahele Recreation Area on Mauna Kea for a potluck and a chance to talk about the experience of owning EVs on the Big Island.
Santa Barbara Earth Day 2025 and Green Car Show in Santa Barbara, CA on April 26-27, 11am-8pm – This is part of Santa Barbara’s Earth Day celebration, which routinely attracts 30,000 participants and is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations on the planet. The Green Car Show includes ride & drives and an “Owners Corner” where owners can showcase their EVs and attendees can check them out and ask questions.
Earth Day’25 – EV’s role in a sustainable future in Queretaro City, Mexico on April 26, 9am-4pm – The sole Mexican event, this is a combined in-person/online seminar at the Querétaro Institute of Technology.
Norman Earth Day Festival in Norman, OK on April 27, 12-5pm – Another municipal Earth Day festival, with hands-on activities for kids to learn about the environment. A portion of the parking lot reserved for an EV car show for EV owners who pre-register to show off their vehicles.
Oregon Electric Vehicle Association Test Drive & Information Expo in Portland, OR on April 27, 10am-4pm – This one is at Daimler Truck’s North American HQ, and will have several EVs for test drives, owner displays (including DIY gas-to-EV conversions), and keynote presentations by EV experts. They’ll even have a 1914 Detroit Electric EV available for test rides!
And, we at Electrek want to give a shoutout to Rove’s EV Drive Days in Santa Ana 10am-3pm April 28 – ROVE is the company behind the “full-service” EV charging concept that we’ve talked about several times here on Electrek, and we like what they’re doing for EV charging. They’ve hosted a few community events, and this is their contribution to Earth Month.
Each event has a different assortment of activities (e.g. test drives won’t be available at every event, generally just the larger ones attended by local dealerships), so be sure to check the events page to see what the plan is for your local event.
These events have offered a great way to connect with owners and see the newest electric vehicle tech, and even get a chance to do test rides and drives in person. Attendees got to hear unfiltered information from actual owners about the benefits and trials of owning EVs, allowing for longer and more genuine (and often more knowledgeable) conversations than one might normally encounter at a dealership.
And if you’re an owner – you can show off your car and answer those questions for interested onlookers.
To view all the events and see what’s happening in your area, you can check out the list of events or the events map. You can also sign up to volunteer at your local events, and if you plan to show off your electric car, you can RSVP on each event page and list the vehicle that you plan to show (or see what other vehicles have already registered).
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