PORSCHE TAYCAN; TESLA'S GREATEST THREAT?

Here at EVHire our roots were founded in high performance electric vehicles, in the form of the finest offerings from Tesla: the Model X P100D Hire and Model S P100DL. Some people doubt the ‘exotic’ nature of these cars, but when you mention comfortably achieving sub 3 second 0-62mph times (in comfort), autonomous driving and falcon doors, its rather hard to argue otherwise.

Throughout the last 5 years there have been an increasing amount of manufactures releasing hybrid and all electric vehicles, but for several reasons none have really challenged Tesla. It is only natural then, that any new releases that could challenge the current Kings of electric, grab our attention.

The latest news comes from Porsche, who are well known in the automotive world for creating some of the greatest ‘drivers’ cars in existence, dominating lap times at the famous Nurburgring and being the most successful race team to attack the Le Mans 24h, with 19 overall wins.

These are all very impressive stats, however, most Porsche fans will probably be more familiar with  the brands’ street cars, namely the outstanding GT and RS models, that are essentially road legal race cars! What is even more impressive, is that even the ‘Junior’ models, such as the Cayman and Boxster, that make the brand somewhat more accessible, provide an exquisite experience and can be a pure joy to drive!

Until quite recently the brand has focused on combustion engines alone, but due to increasingly stringent emissions regulations, we have seen more hybrid powertrains coming from the German manufacturer. Now, they have announced their first all electric model, the Taycan!

Porsche’s first all electric car is being offered with some very tantalising information. It is supposedly powered by a 270 watt-hour high density lithium ion battery, that will be secured along the floor of the car – to keep weight and the centre of gravity low. This battery, which is more dense than anything Tesla currently offers, will be connected to two motors that were developed for use in the Le Mans 24h winning 919 LMP1 car. These permanently excited synchronous electric motors or PSM, will be located on each axle to presumably supply the car with all wheel drive and torque vectoring capabilities.

Now for the important performance figures! Porsche believe this all electric powertrain will be able to propel the Taycan from 0-62mph in under 3.5s and keep going to a limited top speed of 155mph. Impressive numbers considering this car sits in the same category as the Panamera, but what usually comes into question with electric cars is their daily use capability – range and charge time specifically. Porsche believe the Taycan can offer over 300 miles of range on a single charge and more impressively, over 50% of this can be reclaimed in under 10 minutes, thanks to super rapid charging. However, how widely available will these stations be and will they be able to challenge the current Tesla Supercharger network?

So, it won’t have the straight-line performance of a Tesla, but it probably will come with exceptional build quality and offer a ‘typically Porsche’ thrilling and rewarding driving experience.

With over 10,000 ‘letters of interest’ already submitted for a car that’s over a year away, it appears the £5.3B R&D investment was well placed.

Should EVHire add a Porsche Taycan Hire to the future hire fleet? Let us know!!!!