This isn’t your yuppie friend’s electric vehicle.
The Porsche Taycan proves it’s possible to go electric and still have drive a powerful, heart beating in the pit of your stomach, sleek racing machine that would make Daniel Craig jealous.
Pronounced tie-con, Taycan is a Eurasian word that roughly translates to “lively young horse.” Word on the street is it packs a gallop. Though it’s not officially expected to debut until 2020, Road and Track managed to land their hands on some spy photos. We don’t know what its scheduled maintenance plan is like, but this beauty looks pretty exciting.
Green Freedom, Serious Wings
“Our new electric sports car is strong and dependable; it’s a vehicle that can consistently cover long distances and that epitomizes freedom,” Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said in a statement announcing the name.
Pricing
Our mechanics just have one question: How much?
“We’re expecting a price somewhere between a Cayenne and a Panamera,” Robert Meier, the model-line director for the Taycan, told Automotive News.
The Cayenne in the US is priced just under $66,000, the Panamera around $85,000. That indicates a starting price for the Taycan at around $75,000 range.
And the company plans to offer higher performance models like a Taycan Turbo S with even more premium features for a little over $225,000.
Our Jaguar technicians don’t know if their piggy banks are quite that fat, but they’re working on it. Send $10s and $20s, and maybe they’ll let you drive theirs.
Efficient Collaboration
Because producing an electric vehicle of this caliber require such substantial resources, the Porsche Taycan, and others in that vein, is a collaboration. Porsche has teamed up with VW and Audi for a range of high performance electric cars. The collaboration reportedly saves the companies about 30% in R&D costs.
“The Porsche Mission has been developed in-house at Stuttgart from start to finish, but Porsche is working with its VW stablemate on a separate platform called the Premium Performance Electric or PPE,” said Stefan Weckbach, head of BEV at Porsche, told Car Magazine. “‘We’re working very closely with our counterparts, in particular at Audi, on the use of joint modules for the e-vehicles we are currently planning. The brands are also working on the joint development of a platform for new BEV projects in the future.”
