Nico Müller calls it « the Beast ». Coming from a professional racing driver, that counts as praise. The Porsche 975 RSE is quoted at 600 kW peak, 816 PS, a top speed of 335 kph and 1.8 seconds from 0 to 100 kph. It replaces the 99X Electric in Formula E from the 2026/2027 season.
Porsche opened up Weissach at the end of August to walk through the development of this GEN4 car, in a piece that first ran in Christophorus, the company magazine.
Downforce arrives
The GEN4 turns up with large aerodynamic surfaces and a silhouette closer to Formula 1. Styling has little to do with it. « Formula E has become so fast in just around a decade that we now need aerodynamic downforce, » says Olivier Champenois, Technical Project Leader Formula E at Porsche Motorsport. Up to 150 per cent more downforce than the outgoing generation.
Downforce costs drag, and drag costs energy. Hence two bodywork packages: a low-downforce, low-drag version for races, and a high-downforce version for qualifying, where consumption stops mattering. The 975 RSE name refers to the 75th anniversary of Porsche Motorsport, marked this year.
Efficiency was already settled
One figure still catches people out: powertrain efficiency above 97 per cent on the GEN3 Evo 99X Electric, against under 55 per cent for the last generation of Formula 1 cars. The gap comes from braking recuperation, which here operates at up to 700 kW.
The consequence is unusual. With 51.25 kWh of usable capacity, the 975 RSE covers a race distance of more than 45 minutes. At lights out the battery holds only around half the energy the race will consume. Close to 50 per cent of the energy used comes back through recuperation. Every car on the grid works this way, since the formula stays heavily standardised: chassis, aerodynamics, tyres and battery are identical for each team.
Peak power on the 975 RSE is 71 per cent higher than on its predecessor.
What Porsche builds in-house
Regulations restrict free parts, which pushes the contest elsewhere: weight, durability, cost. « Although we’re developing more components in-house, the overall weight of our parts package could not increase by more than five kilograms, » Champenois says. The rear-axle electric motor, the transmission, the differentials, the driveshafts, cooling and rear chassis components all come from Porsche.
So does the software, and that is where Champenois locates the real difference between manufacturers. The 975 RSE control units carry more than 1.5 million lines of code across well over a hundred modules. Keeping that work internal shortens reaction times and keeps the knowledge with the people who run the season.
The oil-cooled permanent magnet synchronous motor on the rear axle recovers up to 350 kW on its own. It survives the thermal load through direct oil cooling, with non-conductive oil running along the stator windings, where the heat is generated. A water-jacket motor of equivalent output would be roughly one and a half times larger. Nearly the same solution sits in the Cayenne Turbo Electric.
From the bench to the track
The concept phase started in 2024, with simulator work following immediately, while the team was still fighting for the GEN3 title and developing the GEN3 Evo. The first official data on the new generation landed in summer 2024.
Weissach’s test benches, shared with road car programmes, recreate a simulated vehicle environment into which a steering wheel or a chassis sensor can be plugged before a complete car exists. The remaining gap to reality is two to three per cent, which is why track testing stays essential. Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Müller have been running the 975 RSE since November 2025.
Champenois expects lap times in Formula 2 territory. Spectators get to judge from December 2026, when the GEN4 reaches the pre-grid. Porsche has just closed a season with two titles, drivers’ and manufacturers’, including Pascal Wehrlein’s second drivers’ crown. The 99X Electric leaves as the most successful single-seater in Porsche history, by the company’s own account. An awkward brief for whatever follows it.
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