Piëch Automotive to launch new electric car at Geneva motor show

Ferdinand Porsche’s great-grandson enters the automotive arena with Mark Zero coupe 

Piëch Automotive has announced it will unveil an electric powered sportscar concept called the Mark Zero at the 2019 Geneva motor show in early March.

The Swiss-based electric vehicle start-up was co-founded in 2016 by Anton Piëch, the son of Ferdinand Piëch, the highly influential former chairman of the Volkswagen Group and great-grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the design of the original Volkswagen Beetle and founder of Porsche.

Piëch has partnered with Rea Stark Rajcic, a Swiss industrial designer.

The first official photographs of the Mark Zero reveal a retro-inspired two-door coupe. It is based upon a new electric vehicle platform structure developed by Piëch Automotive, which is claimed to employ around 200 staff.

In a departure from the skateboard style platforms of many other electric vehicle start-ups, the architecture developed by Piëch Automotive sites its battery pack along the centre line and within the rear axle – a layout suggesting it may be rear wheel drive.

The Mark Zero’s battery is sourced from what Piëch Automotive describes as a Sino-German joint venture previously not active in the automotive industry. It uses cells claimed to boast highly efficient thermo properties, allowing them to be cooled by air rather than liquid, as with many new electric vehicles.

The battery is also claimed to support rapid charging at high voltages.

Piëch Automotive promises a range of 500km on the latest European WLTP test cycle for the new two seat Coupe, which is said to weigh less than 1800kg.

Piëch Automotive, a public listed company based in Zurich, has no official affiliation with the Volkswagen Group.