Fully Electric Porsche Taycan Boasts Lower Center Of Gravity Than 911

Porsche’s head of EVs promises the Taycan “drives like a Porsche, looks like a Porsche, and feels like a Porsche”.

The all-electric Taycan isn’t going into production until next year, but more details about Porsche’s highly anticipated Tesla rival are starting to emerge. In a recent interview with Porsche’s customer magazine, the automaker’s head of battery electric vehicles, Stefan Weckbach, assured us that the Taycan will still deliver a driving experience people expect from the prestigious brand, despite the lack of combustion engine.

"The Taycan drives like a Porsche, looks like a Porsche, and feels like a Porsche; it just happens to have a different type of drive,” he said, adding that every Porsche needs to be the sportiest in its segment.

“Even an electric sports car can be puristic and highly emotional. We don’t consider that a contradiction. On the contrary, with the optimum drive technology and the right vehicle concept, the Porsche characteristics can be brought even more to the fore.” He went on to say that the Taycan’s under-floor battery will enable it to have a lower center of gravity than the 911. It will also also have impressive longitudinal and lateral dynamics, according to Weckbach.

While the performance in some electric sports cars degrades after repeated hard acceleration, this won’t happen in the Taycan. Porsche has developed “permanently excited synchronous” motors similar to the 919 Hybrid that “offer high long-term output.“ Weckbach promises this system will enable you to a “accelerate powerfully not just once but several times in succession” and drive at a consistently high speed. The Taycan also has an active cooling system that prevents any performance losses by supplying cooling power to components that need it.

Being Porsche’s first electric vehicle, the engineering team has had to ensure the Taycan is suitable for everyday use by having a sufficient range while offering the performance expected from a Porsche. To achieve this tricky balance, engineers focused on making the car as light and as aerodynamic as possible, as well as developing a lightweight lithium-ion battery. As a result, the Taycan has a range over 310 miles. Two electric motors produce a combined output over 592 hp, enabling the Taycan to accelerate 0-62 mph in under 3.5 seconds and 0-124 mph in less than 12 seconds.

“Porsche will present the Taycan at the end of 2019. And I can reveal this much already: it won’t be just an electric vehicle. It’ll be a Porsche,” Weckbach concluded.

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Did Porsche Rig Cayman R Emissions To Help Lower Road Tax?

The investigation is now underway.

Back in 2011, Porsche unveiled the ultimate version of the previous generation Cayman, the Cayman R. It was lighter, more powerful, and faster than that generation’s Cayman S. Perhaps one day it’ll be become a highly sought after collectible. However, we’ve just heard about yet another possible emissions test scandal, this time in the UK. And yes, it involves the Cayman R. According to The Times, suspicion that something was up began during a legal case for an unrelated safety issue when the car was driven in second gear.

When in that gear, the revs would remain lower, thus letting the Cayman R’s 3.4-liter flat-six to produce less C02 than if it was driven off the line in first gear. This resulted in the car producing 221 g/km (grams per kilometer), while in the rest of Europe it was rated at 228 g/km. That 7 g/km difference meant the Cayman R was classified in a lower road tax level in the UK, which meant owners paid a 315 GBP yearly road tax, instead of a 540 GBP tax required for cars that emit 226-255 g/km. This rating system has since been replaced, but that doesn’t change the fact that something isn’t right here. In fact, this issue may involve more Porsches than just the 981 generation Cayman R.

Also from that same generation, this issue potentially affects the Boxster S, Boxster Spyder, and Cayman S. Up to 1,500 UK owners could have paid a lower road tax than legally required, but at no fault of their own. If so, the British treasury would have lost some 3 million GBP in revenue. For now, Porsche refuses to comment on the situation, blaming ongoing legal proceedings. Up until now, Porsche was only affected by the VW diesel scandal with, obviously, diesel engines. But the Porsche Cayman R and those other 981 generation models, are definitely not diesels.

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Porsche Taycan Will Be Priced Lower Than The Panamera

And undercut the Tesla Model 3, in the process.

Porsche is gearing up to bring its first electric vehicle to market. But before it announces pricing, Automotive News Europe gives us an indication at how much the Taycan will cost.

“We’re expecting a price somewhere between a Cayenne and a Panamera,” the vehicle's model line director Robert Meier revealed. That ought to place it (give or take a few thousand) around $75,000 in the US, where the Cayenne starts just over $65k and the Panamera at $85k. At that rate, it'd undercut even the base Tesla Model S, which starts in 75D spec at $77k (before government incentives).

The positioning makes sense considering the roots of the project. Porsche originally planned on producing a smaller, more affordable counterpart to the Panamera, much as the Macan slots in below the Cayenne. That plan eventually morphed into the Mission E project that gave birth to the four-door Taycan electric performance sedan.

That price may prove just the starting point, though. ANE reports that a more potent version could follow – potentially dubbed the Taycan Turbo S – with a price tag closer to double the launch version. That initial model will be no slouch on its own, though.

With over 600 horsepower, the Taycan will reach 62 mph in under 3.5 seconds and lap the Nürburgring in less than eight minutes. That'd make it the fastest EV ever to round the Nordschleife, where Porsche's 911 GT2 RS and 919 Evo rein king.

To unleash Porsche levels of performance, the automaker is employing a pair of permanently excited synchronous electric motors. "Asynchronous e-motors are clearly more affordable," said Meier. But you can "only overload the motor once when you want high dynamic acceleration before it quickly reaches its limits the second or third time. That’s fine for most electric cars but not for a high-performance Porsche.”

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