FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
When thinking of Porsche vs Tesla for buyer motivation, given the Porsche idea that many reservations come from existing Tesla owners, there are a few points:
1. Comparing Tesla vs Porsche for warranty service, parts availability and collision repair Porsche wins in many countries. Having owned multiple versions of both brands, Porsche is far better on these measures, despite some 'enthusiastic pricing' by Porsche dealers, they find parts and do service rapidly. many people who have ever faced crash repair in both find Porsche parts arrive fast and accurately. Tesla's arrive slowly, often incorrectly labeled, damaged or both.
2. Both brands are highly prized and have high owner loyalty, but consistency favors Porsche, with decades of high loyalty.
3. The design philosophies make Porsche quite appealing to many enthusiasts. Tesla wins with OTA updates and people who love the most advanced computer technology, and Porsche wins with pure car enthusiasts, especially older than Millennials. Thus, taking nothing from Tesla, owners with multiple sporting vehicles are excellent candidates for Porsche, especially since many already own them.
4. Just from Porsche Club mutterings, I suspect they are getting reservations from existing owners of both Porsche and Tesla, who are quite prepared to continue to own both.
FWIW, quite a few years back I led a project for an aircraft manufacturer to evaluate Porsche owners as candidates to buy small aircraft. >50% of all new US Porsche owners are aircraft pilots. Coincidentally at that time >70% of new Porsche buyers had other luxury vehicles also. That was before Tesla. All that history strongly suggests that Porsche will not really make conquest sales but will expand the BEV market, probably maintaining high BEV loyalty for both.
There is much other data that suggests the points I listed above. That said, some will cite Panamera, Cayenne and Macan as examples of Porsche market expansion. That is partly true, but Mission E will change the story. Porsche hybrids thus far, if my data is correct, tend to be almost all people who were already Porsche buyers anyway.
NET: the more the merrier, but Tesla MUST raise the game of sales treatment and after-sale treatment. Even though Jaguar, Porsche et al may not be very direct competitors there will soon be quite direct comparisons about sales and service.
Addendum: If these points are valid for the USA, which has pretty poor auto services overall, just wait for mass sales in Germany, China, Korea and Japan. Even Norway has some very bad experiences. Disaster beckons if the sad North America/Norwegian stories are repeated in those four countries. Make no mistake, this is an existential crisis equivalent to those of Model X introduction and Model 3 production. Paraphrasing an offensive quotation 'Hell hath no fury like a Tesla lover scorned".
I agree with your comparison between Porsche and Tesla as I have been a long term Pcar owner for over 25 years. Interestingly, I was recently invited to participate in a 4 hour focus group about the future direction of Porsche. The main focus was clearly on new EV models and autonomous driving integration.
Bottom line... Porsche is very interested in what Tesla has accomplished and they are searching for a way to emulate their success without losing the current Porsche brand identity. It is going to be a very difficult transition to Electric vehicles while trying to keep the current ICE customer base happy. All signs point to the transition of the Panamera sedan and Cayenne/Macan SUVs first followed by the Boxster/Cayman and 911 variants last. Can't say more with the NDA limits…