When most of us think of electric cars, our minds immediately go to Tesla. The reason why is clear: Elon Musk’s electric car company has been producing and selling electric vehicles for more than a decade, starting in 2008 with the Roadster, and expanding with the Model S, the Model X, the Model 3, and the forthcoming Semi, Model Y, and 2020 Roadster. Other manufacturers, such as Chevrolet and Nissan, have tried to compete with vehicles such as the Bolt and the Leaf, but these cars lack the aesthetic appeal and popularity of Tesla’s offerings. As of now, Tesla dominates the luxury electric car market, with the expensive-but-desirable Model S offering such features as autopilot, a front trunk, and a sophisticated media, entertainment, and navigation system. A newcomer to the electric car scene, Porsche hopes to topple Tesla’s dominance with the release of its newly announced Taycan.
On Wednesday, Porsche unveiled the new vehicle in a press event where they detailed the specifications of their first fully-electric sports car. The vehicle will be offered in three versions, the Tatcan, theTaycan Turbo, and the Taycan Turbo S, with the base model costing $150,900. Every model of the Taycon will come with a 100 kWh battery, the same as the high-end Model S, which Porsche says will give the vehicle a 280 mile range. While that range is impressive for an electric vehicle, one would expect excellent mileage for the price Porsche is asking, and the range pales in comparison to the highest-end Tesla vehicle, which has a 200 kWh battery.
In addition to range, another key factor for an electric vehicle is the amount of time it takes to charge, and Porsche also offers promising details in that area. Porsche says that the Taycan can charge at a rate of 270 kW, which is faster than the highest-end Tesla, which charges at 250 kW. Porsche says that this enables the Taycan to be charged from 0% to 80% in just over 22 minutes. The Taycan boasts an impressive acceleration speed, going from 0 mph to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds when using its “Overboost” mode and its launch control system. Uniquely for an electric car, the Taycan also has a two-speed transmission, with a low and high gear, which helps improve the vehicle’s acceleration.
Like many of Tesla’s offerings, the Taycan’s interior has little in the way of physical knobs, switches, and buttons, instead relying upon an array of touchscreen displays installed in the car’s dashboard. The car’s interior is leather-free, a first for the car company, and instead is constructed from recycled metal, glass, and other materials.
In the luxury electric car space, Porsche has some fierce competition in the form of Tesla, which benefits from the several years of experience they have developing and refining their offerings. Tesla owners can enjoy a sophisticated autopilot mode as well as a developed network of “supercharger” locations, where they can park their cars to charge to nearly full capacity in just under an hour for free. There’s no word as of yet as to whether or not the Taycan, or other electric cars, will be able to take advantage of these Supercharger stations, or whether or not Porsche will implement a similar charging network of their own.
However, Porsche does have plenty of experience manufacturing luxury sports cars, and some of that expertise certainly translates into the design of the Taycan. In Wednesday’s press event, Porsche boasted that a Taycan Turbo S set the world record for fastest lap on the famous Nurburgring track, and while both the Model S and the Taycan are some of the fastest vehicles ever produced, the Taycan is likely to fare better on the track, owing to an architecture which allows the vehicle to rapidly accelerate and decelerate without overheating as quickly as Tesla’s offerings and the company’s decades of experience optimizing the engineering of their vehicles for peak performance.
For most of us, luxury electric vehicles like the Taycan and the Model S remain just a dream, as their high price tag ensures they will be purchased only by the uber-wealthy. However, the continued proliferation of electric cars is good news for the future of the industry, as with time electric cars are sure to lower in price and become more accessible to the general public.
Tyler Olhorst is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. You can reach him at inquiries@thenationaldigest.com.
