Porsche unveils the Taycan Performance Electric Car

Porsche unveils the Taycan with impressive range, acceleration, and a sleek design

100% Electric, 100% Porsche — finally the day came when the German luxury and performance automobile manufacturer unveiled the ‘Taycan’, Porsche’s first production electric car in their 88 years of existence.

Porsche Taycan’s world premiere was live-streamed earlier today simultaneously from Germany, China, and Canada — where separate unveiling events took place at the automaker’s sustainable energy generation facilities.

Range and Charging

The specifications that Porsche has released during the presentations are impressive but lack in some areas against the rival Tesla Model 3 Performance — according to Porsche, the Taycan has a 93.4 kWh battery pack that delivers 450 km (279 miles) of range (WLTP).

The all-electric range of the Taycan is considerably lower than the Model 3 P which has a ~500 km (310 miles) of range on the EPA standard, the Taycan range figures are from the overly optimistic WLTP cycle that will translate to a reduction of miles when tested in the real world.

I wish we could save the comparisons for another time but they’re always tingling in the back of the mind, especially when it comes to the range of an electric vehicle.

Porsche Taycan’s battery pack is able to take up to 270 kW of power which translates to 100 km (62 miles) of charging in as low as 5 mins whereas a Tesla Model 3 on a V3 Supercharger (250 kW) can gain up to 75 miles of range in just 5 mins.

During the unveiling presetation, Porsche showed a CSS connector and stated that the Taycan can be used for daily commute with wide available charging options, in Europe the CSS network is more widespread than the rest of the world and with fast chargers like Ionity (up to 350 kW), the Taycan can take advantage of its ultra charging capabilities.

Acceleration and Top Speed

According to Porsche, the Taycan EV can go from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in just 2.8 sec, that’s blazing fast and the car can attain the top speed of 260 km/h (162 mph) on the track — the interesting thing for petrolheads to read here is that the ‘Taycan can sustain it’s top speed for extended periods of time’, not a one-off, claims Porsche.

With the iconic 918 Spyder on its portfolio, Porsche truly knows car performance engineering and it reflects in the above figures, when the Taycan is tested for 0-60 mph it might just be able to shove-off another 0.1 seconds to match the 2.7 sec time of its ICE sibling, the Porsche 911 Turbo S.

Just before today’s Taycan unveiling, Porsche released the following teaser video of the prototype doing 0-90-0 mph test on the USS Hornet marine fighter jet carrier, a dramatic run!

Design

Sleek — anyone can tell that this is a Porsche from afar, probably a good looking electric car from a major automaker except for Tesla, otherwise they have a tradition of creating hideous EVs, if the Taycan’s final version looked anything like the prototype in the above acceleration testing video, it would’ve been a big failure.

In the absence of the internal combustion engine the bonnet of the Taycan was lowered, it added to the overall aerodynamics improvement of the car and a 0.22 drag coefficient (Cd) was achieved, beating the 0.23 Cd of the Tesla Model 3 — in my opinion, the Taycan looks much better than the Model 3 but will be more expensive for sure (no price disclosed as of now).

The unveiled Porsche Taycan at all three locations has the name ‘Taycan Turbo S’ on the license plates, the accompanying Porsche press release states that initially there will be two variants of the car Taycan Turbo S and the Taycan Turbo.

Porsche Taycan Turbo S in white and Taycan Turbo in blue.
Porsche Taycan Turbo S in white and Taycan Turbo in blue. Photo: Christoph Bauer / Porsche

Drivetrain and Transmission

Both variants of the Taycan will be dual-motor, one motor at the front axle and one at the rear, the unique two-speed transmission of the Taycan is integrated with the rear motor instead of the front one.

The Porsche press release sheds more light on the Taycan’s transmission and all-wheel-drive setup as:

Innovative drive motors and a two-speed transmission
The Taycan Turbo S and Taycan Turbo have two exceptionally efficient electric ma-chines, one on the front axle and one on the rear axle, thus making the cars all-wheel drive. Both the range and the continuous power of the drive system benefit from the highly efficient permanently excited synchronous machines. The electric machine, transmission and pulse-controlled inverter are each combined into a compact drive module. The modules have the highest power density (kW per cubic foot of package space) of all-electric powertrains on the market today. A special feature of the electric motors are the “hairpin” windings of the stator coils. This technology makes it possible to incorporate more copper in the stator, increasing power output and torque while maintaining the same component volume. The two-speed transmission installed on the rear axle is an innovation developed by Porsche. First gear lets the Taycan prioritize acceleration from a standing start, while second gear, with its long gear ratio, ensures high efficiency and equally high power reserves while traveling at high speeds.

Porsche Taycan: Two-Speed Transmission
Porsche Taycan: Two-Speed Transmission

Interior

No doubt, Tesla has inspired the big center touchscreen and display trend in the automotive industry and Porsche had no choice here but to follow, the Taycan EV has a lot of screens expanding from the driver’s instrument cluster to the center console and an optinal screen for the passenger side.

However, Porsche has done the interior in their own way, like the exterior, the interior resonates that this car belongs to the Porsche family, a sports car to the core!

Porsche Taycan is going to have an optional Leather-free interior package for vegan lovers and believers of sustainability, additionally the Taycan does have a front trunk (frunk) with a 2.8 cubic feet of capacity and the rear trunk has 12.9 cubic feet of space for the luggage.

Porsche Taycan Interior.
Porsche Taycan Interior.

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Iqtidar Ali
[email protected]

Iqtidar Ali reports on the latest happenings at Tesla and Electric Vehicle forefront. With over 1 decade of experience in website development, he's our IT resource as well.


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