Porsche's first all-electric vehicle the Taycan

Porsche started talking about it first all-electric car, the Taycan, almost four years ago, and a lot has been learned about the car since then. Two remaining questions are now solved about what the car actually looks like and how it performs.

Jonny Smith puts the Porsche to the test

Jonny Smith former presenter for Fifth Gear puts the Taycan through its paces on a new video just published. Wikipedia describes Fifth Gear: "Fifth Gear is a British motoring television magazine series. It was originally broadcast on Channel 5 from 2002 to 2011, afterwards moving to Discovery Channel in 2012, and then in 2015 to History, with repeats on ITV4.[1] Since its return in 2018, it has been broadcast on Quest. The show is currently presented by Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jonny Smith and Jason Plato.[2]"

Smith has made many videos on the Fully Charged You Tube channel but he is known for taking a tiny 1970's UK commuter car and turning it into the world's quickest street legal electric vehicle the Flux Capacitor. The car went from 0 to 121 miles per hour in just 9.86 seconds.

Taycan has impressive acceleration

Smith was delighted by the speed of the Taycan. Some Tesla's may be a bit quicker getting to 60 miles per hour but the Taycan is able to accelerate quickly repeatedly with its liquid-cooled 800V battery pack. The video shows Smith using the launch control to accelerate to near maximum speed.

Detail of the interior not revealed

The video sound gives you a good idea what the Taycan will sound like both at low speeds and when it accelerates. However, the seats and dashboard shown all seem to be covered in fabric so that viewers will not see these details until the eventual official unveiling of the car. The company appears to want to keep some surprises for the official unveiling that should be soon.

The Mission E

A 2015 article describes the new Porsche e-car which at the time was called Mission E: "The concept car combines the unmistakable emotional design of a Porsche with excellent performance and the forward-thinking practicality of the first 800-volt drive system. Key specification data of this fascinating sports car: four doors and four single seats, over 600 hp (440 kW) system power and over 500 km driving range. All-wheel drive and all-wheel steering, zero to 100 km/h acceleration in under 3.5 seconds and a charging time of around 15 minutes to reach an 80 per cent charge of electrical energy. Instruments are intuitively operated by eye-tracking and gesture control, some even via holograms – highly oriented toward the driver by automatically adjusting the displays to the driver's position."

Previously published in the DIgital Journal

Porsche to release the Taycan an all-electric sports car by the end of this year

Porsche will release its first all-electric sports car next year. The arrival of the new EV, the Taycan, is eagerly awaited even by Tesla owners. The Taycan is to come onto the market at the end of 2019.

CEO of Porsche, Klaus Zellmer said that if everyone who has posted a deposit to pre-order the Taycan follows through and buys it, the car will be sold out in the first year of production. Zellmer noted that more than half of those who have pre-orders have not owned or do not own a Porsche. He claimed that many are coming from Tesla.

CNET quotes Zellmer as saying: "More than half of the people that are signing up for the Taycan have not owned or do not own a Porsche," he said. So what do they drive? "Typically, if we look at our source of business, people coming from other brands, it's Audi, BMW, or Mercedes. The no. 1 brand now is Tesla. That's pretty interesting, to see that people that were curious about the Tesla for very good reasons obviously don't stop being curious."

Zellmer did not say how many people had made deposits or how many units of the Taycan will be produced this year and afterwards. Previously Porsche said that it planned to make about 20,000 Taycans per year. However, in November a Porsche official said that due to demand Porsche would increase production but he did not say by how much.

The Taycan

The Taycan is expected to have three models including an all-wheel drive version. The base model is called the Taycan, the Taycan 45 is the all-wheel drive version, and the Taycan Turbo is the top model. It is called Turbo even though that is usually reserved for internal combustion engines. Taycan roughly translates into "lively young horse".

Some see the Taycan as a threat to Tesla which so far has dominated the luxury EV market. The Volkswagen Group that owns Porsche has invested over a billion dollars in the car.

CNET reports that the Taycan will have a huge 600 horsepower and a range of more than 300 miles. The top-of-the line Turbo is expected to have a price tag of more than $130,000.

Previously published in Digital Journal