For the past 70 years, the Porsche brand has been synonymous with sports car construction at the very highest level. The first vehicle to bear the Porsche name was registered on June 8, 1948: It was the 356 “No.1” Roadster. This is the day on which the Porsche brand was born. Type 356 turned Ferry Porsche’s dream of a sports car into a reality.

The history of the Porsche brand begins in 1948. Yet the foundation of the sports car manufacturer is built upon the life’s work of Professor Ferdinand Porsche – work which his son Ferry then continued. Ferdinand Porsche had already designed pioneering innovations for the automotive industry as early as the start of the last century. In 1900, he built an electric car with a wheel hub drive known as the Lohner-Porsche, a vehicle on which he would then base the world’s first all-wheel-drive passenger car. In the same year, he created a template for hybrid vehicles with the development of a mixed petrol-electric powertrain. In 1931, Ferdinand Porsche founded his own engineering office. The “Berlin-Rome Car” showcased in 1939 was the beginning of his idea for a sports car bearing the Porsche name, although this dream was only realized by his son Ferry in 1948 with the Type 356.

The successor model to the 356, the Porsche 911 designed by Ferry Porsche’s son Ferdinand Alexander, finally gave the company its breakthrough as one of the leading manufacturers of sports cars in the world, both from a technical and a design perspective. The Porsche 911, presented to the global public for the first time in 1963, has now been built over a million times.

The future of Porsche sports cars is already coming up to the starting line in the form of the Mission E, the first purely electrically driven technology champion from Zuffenhausen. This concept vehicle combines the distinctive emotional design of a Porsche, exceptional driving performance, and forward-thinking everyday functionality. The four-door model with four individual seats delivers a system performance of over 440 kW (600 hp) and a range of more than 500 km, acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3.5 seconds and a charging time of around 15 minutes for 80 percent of the electrical energy required. Porsche has invested around one billion euro in this futuristic project, creating more than 1,200 additional jobs just at the headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, where the Mission E will be built.