The new Porsche Taycan entered its final stage of development, which has taken it to various parts of the planet to test the durability and behavior of all the components — when the first units begin to be delivered at the end of the year, the Taycan, a 100% electric proposal unprecedented in the manufacturer, it must also be 100% Porsche.
Development tests took the Taycan within a few kilometers of the Arctic Circle in Sweden for cold-resistance tests; to Dubai, in the UAE for heat resistance tests; and to South Africa for performance tests.
The Porsche Taycan test program has already covered 30 countries and involved a team of 1000 people, including test drivers, technicians and engineers.
Millions of kilometers have been accumulated, as Stefan Weckbach, vice president of the range, says:
After running computer simulations and bench testing ahead of time, we have now reached the final stage of this demanding testing program. Before the Taycan hits the market at the end of the year, we will have covered nearly six million kilometers across the globe. We are already very happy with the current state of the vehicles. The Taycan will be a real Porsche.
What do we already know?
Anticipated by Mission E, the Taycan will also take the form of a four-door sports saloon — or a four-door “coupé,” whichever you prefer — will be publicly unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show next September, and is expected to hit the market in at least three versions, corresponding to three power levels.
The most powerful variant will have more than 600 hp , the intermediate should be 100 hp below, with the access version showing more than 400 hp. With an electric motor per axle, all versions will have all-wheel drive.
Although there is no official data on the weight, it is expected that it will be slightly below the 2.3 t of the Tesla Model S, but it will not be an impediment to high performance. Porsche has not yet revealed definitive data, but guarantees that all Taycans will reach 250 km/h, with the more powerful version you will get a time “well below” from 3.5s in the 0 to 100 km/h.
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According to Porsche's accounts, this most powerful Taycan will be able to make a detour around the Nürburgring, Porsche's “rear yard”, in less than eight minutes.
Autonomy and loading
Regarding autonomy, the German brand, unfortunately, only provided values in accordance with the NEDC cycle, despite the WLTP being already in force. 500 km of maximum autonomy were announced, which should correspond to more than 400 km in the WLTP cycle.
Where the new Porsche Taycan will stand out will be in terms of battery charging, advancing with very ambitious numbers. The 800 V architecture will allow to add 100 km of autonomy (NEDC) for every 4 minutes of charge, and a time of less than 20 minutes to charge the battery with 10% charge up to 80%, but…
This will only be possible on 350 kW superchargers which, unfortunately, are still very few in Europe. THE ionity network , which will make this type of charger available, is still in the process of installing 400 charging stations across the European continent by 2020 — at the moment there are around 70 built — but Portugal is not part of that first wave.
And more?
In addition to the four-door saloon, in 2020 the production version of the Mission E Sport Turismo concept will appear… and what about prices? For the US, it is expected to be located somewhere between the Cayenne and the Panamera, an expected scenario that will be repeated in Europe and, of course, Portugal.
However, as in Portugal the trams do not pay ISV (and IUC), it may happen that the Taycan may even come with a final price lower than both.