Performance model will likely have a larger rear motor and therefore be more costly.
From an eng'g perspective (outside the EV industry):
Regen is most powerful on the front axles. This requires a large front motors.
Front heavy cars are more stable and require less stability control force to keep them tracking correctly. They lose less energy in a corner.
Tail heavy cars magnify a trait called snap oversteer. You lift the throttle or hit the brakes during a corner, the weight shifts forward creating a new center of inertia, and the rotational inertia of the car's turning weight spins the car. Stability control can only do so much to fix this, since the front tires and rear weight are causing it.
If I were to design an EV today:
It would have 4 PMAC motors. All identical.
It would have 4 inverters all identical.
And a central PCM that controls them.
Because of today's chemistry, it would have 2 batteries.
One small battery capable of very high C rates that is rarely used and stays at ~50%, perhaps 4 kWh.
One capable of modest C rates that is used 95%+ of the time.
Max acceleration and deceleration events are brief and brutal. But these are rare events. You don't really need the 4 kWh battery for range, you need it for acceleration and braking.
4 motors gives you torque vectoring that can vastly exceed what today's Stability Control systems or even All Wheel Steering can offer for safety and parking lot maneuverability. With the right programming a truly serious track weapon.
The frontal structure needed for 4x4 motor deployment will help "small offset frontal" impacts. The entire front quadrant will break off and deflect the chassis.
There is more, but I doubt anyone got this far.
