When Elon Musk rolled out the new Tesla Model X at the end of September, some grumbled that the Silicon Valley car maker’s all-electric luxury crossover was coming to market two years too late. It depends on who you ask. The Big Three German auto makers only wish they could catch the tail of Mr. Musk’s rocket.

I’m not talking about units sold, though Tesla’s target of 50,000 cars in 2015 is a respectable chunk of the global luxury-sedan market. But Tesla has taken more hide off German prestige and sense of technical primacy. I mean, the Model X was just rubbing their noses in it with those “falcon” doors, right? In executive interviews at the Frankfurt Auto Show any praise of Tesla was guaranteed to land on the table like a paternity suit.

It’s ironic: European auto makers are under intense public and regulatory pressure to reduce emissions. Scores of European city centers already have restricted vehicle access; in the next decade European Union fleet carbon emissions will fall potentially to as low as 68 to 78 g/km, about 30% lower than 2005 standards.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, in asking for relief, in June, said “it may not be possible” to meet those standards due to the efficiency limits of traditional technology. To be more direct, the costs of compliance will make internal combustion powertrains uneconomic. I do believe that is the regulator’s point.

Tesla Model X Photo: Tesla Motors

The events at VW manifest, rather melodramatically, this approaching asymptote, where there is no more blood to be squeezed from the stone. More rigorous emission testing will only hasten the inevitable. The future has a plug. Everybody sees it.

Yet the company furthest down the road of the European vision is American. VW AG has nothing like Tesla’s multimodel, vertically integrated electric-car company in the pipeline, much less with its own battery factory. Mercedes-Benz makes a lovely B-class electric car based on Tesla technology; but it has, as yet, no real stick in the EV ground beyond abasing itself to California clean-air authorities. Meanwhile, Mercedes’ aero-adaptive Concept IAA, with its nozzle-like appendages, was like something out of Harley Earl’s closet.

The German company that has most stepped out of its comfort zone is BMW, with its sustainability project, the i Division, embracing plug-in/EV powertrains as well as pioneering lightweight composite construction. Manhattanites will know those cars: the i3 and the lupine i8. They really are fantastic automobiles.

But at the moment, the i Division is a 2 billion-euro research project, with no near hope of fiscal lines crossing. The Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Cadillac ELR are the other mass-produced, dedicated plug-in hybrid/EVs. I wonder if any traditional auto maker whose existence does not hang in the balance can ever have enough belly for the EV long game?

Even if the Germans had market-bound EVs in mass quantities, there is the concurrent problem of charging. As the estimable John Voelcker of Green Car Reports notes, the luxury incumbents have no plans to challenge Tesla on charging availability. Tesla has hundreds of charging stations in the U.S. and Europe and plans for hundreds more—all free to owners.

Porsche’s show car, the Mission E, tries to cover this bald spot in Porsche’s business plan. First, the car: Dead cool, luscious, voluptuous, draped over four mighty wheels, the Mission E offers a beguiling tease of next-generation Panamera styling. One hopes. It also previews Porsche’s probable path to an EV supercar, with two ferocious traction motors fore and aft and the slab of lithium-ion battery back lining the floorboards, very like a Model S.

While the Mission E’s 0-60 mph is given as 3.5 seconds—not quite as convulsively fast as a Model S in Ludicrous Mode (2.8 seconds)—that’s only in a straight line. One need not be A.J. Foyt to appreciate what 600 horsepower, 4 foot-wide meats, a roof height of 1.3 meters, and a center of mass about 6 inches off the ground could do for you, handling wise. The Mission E looks like it will rip some major face off. I am looking forward to it.

The Mission E also features several human interface technologies—eye-tracking instrumentation, camera-based outside mirrors, gesture and voice recognition—that are expected before the end of the decade.

My point is, there is so much promise there. But then the Mission E resorts to jiggery-pokery. The car’s 800 Volt system allows superfast charging: 80% capacity in 15 minutes, which pencils out to 250 miles of range. That’s a lot better than Tesla. The problem for Porsche is the availability of 800 Volt charging, which as far as I know is none. Will owners keep the chargers at home, next to their industrial welders? Meanwhile, Porsche execs said a Mission E production car couldn’t be expected before the decade’s end.

Audi Etron Quattro

Over on the next stand at the Frankfurt show, Audi was proudly displaying its e-tron quattro concept, an EV luxe-truck with three electric motors and a 310-mile range aimed right at the Model X. Built on VW’s future-proofed modular architecture, the Q6-sized SUV will be the brand’s first mass-production EV. Looks great, sounds promising. Due date: 2018.

I am struck by the lag time. This isn’t about profit and loss but industry leadership. The Germans are headed where Tesla already is and, taking Frankfurt as the measure, they are in no great hurry to get there. At least they were not before events of the past month so brightly illuminated the handwriting on the wall.