VW group head honchos have committed to developing fuel cell, hybrid and electric vehicles over the next decade. If rumors were to be believed, Porsche was working on an electric car project over the past few years, but all that’s been released until now is a digital rendering of the vehicle. A smaller counterpart the Panamera, the all electric Porsche Pajun will be close rival the Tesla Model S, and equipped with a four wheel steering and wheel torque vectoring system for class leading handling, something that you’ve come to expect from the brand.

The chassis of the Porsche Pajun is based on that of the Bentley Continental and next generation Porsche Panamera, and will be similar in design to the current version of the Panamera so one can expect to see a sloping rear and an iconic 911 front end. The car will not be equipped with a flat battery pack that makes up for the floor of the vehicle, but instead will be fitted with a rather complex battery design, and one that is tucked away in the Pajun’s central tunnel and between the rear and front compartments. With a total of 100 or more battery modules, most of them will be placed below the floor of the vehicle and in the side sills. With a high performance car insurance quote likely to be rather high for most drivers though unfortunately.

The Pajun is expected to sprint at 300 miles, with rumors of selectable power levels of 400, 500 and 600 horsepower to match that of the Tesla Model S P85D.  Dr Heinz-Jacob Neusser – chairman of the board confirmed that there was a new all electric vehicle being developed, but didn’t give much away in terms of the design of the vehicle. What he did say was that this vehicle would be all electric will no option to extend its range with a petro powered engine. In addition to this, he confirmed that not just Porsche, but Audi and Volkswagen as well were working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be released in the next ten years.

Again, he not say much about the design of these vehicles, but we can expect them to be based on the MQB design. The MQB architecture by Volkswagen boasts innovative engineering to be compatible with future powertrains. These already include the Audi A3 e-tron and the Volkswagen e-Golf. Hydrogen powered vehicles are the next thing in line after electric powered vehicles and some of the concept versions are scheduled for release sometime in 2016.

Fuel cell and battery powered vehicles offer several advantages starting with a cleaner alternative to their internal combustion counterparts. But there is a big difference between electric and fuel cell powered vehicles, where the former derives its power from the energy stored in a battery and the latter from its stored fuel. Unlike traditional vehicles that have an internal combustion engine, electric powered vehicles do not have one and fuel cell vehicles as also powered by an electric motor only that this electricity is created in an onsite fuel cell.

Both types of vehicles, battery and fuel have been advancing rapidly, which is why several automakers are looking to get a head start and develop several variants of these models in the next decade.