Porsche surges into electric car fast lane with 15-minute recharge time

Porsche has accelerated into the fast lane of electric car charging, installing two 800-volt chargers at its new Berlin office that are three times as powerful as the Supercharger network used by Tesla.

For now, the chargers can top up car batteries at 150kW, 30kW more than a Tesla Supercharger. But once Porsche's first electric car arrives in 2019, this will surge up to 350kW, cutting recharge time from a long lunch to a quick coffee break.

This translates into an 80% recharge of the company's upcoming Mission E in 15 minutes – and while that's still longer than the time to refuel a petrol car, electric vehicle charge times are falling rapidly.

Revealed in September 2015, the Mission E is a four-seat sports car powered by two electric motors producing over 600 horsepower. The car, which offers a sportier alternative to the electric Tesla Model S, is said to have a maximum range of 330 miles, the same as the Tesla Model S 90D, and sprints to 60mph in 3.5 seconds.

The car-charger arms race will continue through 2018 and 2019 as VW Group, owner of the Porsche brand, and other car companies including BMW, Daimler and Ford unite to build a 350kW-capable charging network across Europe. The aim is this joint venture is to install "thousands" of 350kW charging stations across the continent by 2020.

But Tesla is unlikely to play second fiddle for long, as boss Elon Musk recently teased plans to develop a third-generation Supercharger that would make that 350kW benchmark look like a "children's toy".