Porsche reveals 99X Electric 2019/20 FE car

The car was revealed by Porsche’s 2019/20 FE drivers Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer at the end of an interactive launch event hosted on livestream gaming platform Twitch that took place over four hours at the Porsche Digital GmbH premises in Ludwigsburg.

The 99X Electric features Porsche’s traditional motorsport colours of white, black and red.It is named in Porsche’s usual fashion – with the three digits representing Porsche’s racing cars and two-door road machines.

“The highest number, nine, was used twice, to re-emphasise the importance of the Formula E project for Porsche, while the X stands for the forward-looking approach and prototype racing,” explained an official Porsche statement.

Ahead of its debut FE season, the Porsche squad is set to operate under a four-person management structure.

Pascal Zurlinden, Porsche’s director of factory motorsport, has joined the FE outfit in addition to his role in the marque’s works GT racing programmes.He will work with technical chief Malte Huneke, Porsche’s head of FE operations Amiel Lindesay – previously its team manager in LMP1 in the World Endurance Championship – and Carlo Wiggers, director of team management and business relations for Porsche motorsport.

“Today is an important day,” said Fritz Enzinger, vice president of Porsche motorsport and group motorsport at Volkswagen AG.“With the premiere of the Porsche 99X Electric, we are taking a big step towards the Porsche works entry in Formula E.

“I am really proud of our team, which has shown a high level of commitment to the Formula E project. Now I am looking forward to seeing the Porsche 99X Electric on the racetrack.”

Zurlinden added: “Today sees the Porsche 99X Electric join the list of historic Porsche motorsport cars.The naming and the design give the car its initial character and bring it to life.

“It is a special day for everyone who has put a lot of work into the Porsche Formula E project in recent months.”

Porsche has been gearing up for its FE debut – its first major international competition entry since it left the LMP1 class of the WEC at the end of 2017 – by working through its allotted 15 days of private FE manufacturer-allocated testing.

It rolled out its development car at its Weissach base in March, and then began a series of performance and reliability tests at the Calafat and Mallorca circuits in Spain.These were initially carried out by Jani and development driver Brendon Hartley – who joined Dragon for the 2019/20 season after Porsche signed Lotterer from DS Techeetah.

The team is understood to have one final session of its private testing programme to complete ahead of the three days of official FE pre-season group testing, which are set to take place at Valencia in October.

12