Taycan Porsche's Electric Car - From Mission E to Taycan


The Porsche Taycan is a battery electric luxury sports sedan and shooting brake car produced by Porsche.
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...I think Audi will built a car more like there prototype version then Porshe to the Mission E...I wouldn't be surprised if Audi engineers had a pretty significant hand in creating this car, I doubt it's all Porscheengineering an nothing else.

That appears to indeed be the case should statements by Audi spokespersons be accurate. The eTron GT Concepts' body is reported to be heavily based on a production body-in-white donated by a functional test prototype. The eTron theme black, orange and silver foiled second exhibition car is said to be a 99% reflection of the actual production model due for presentation in some 12-15 months time.

I understand that the J1 BEV architecture that underpins the Taycan was developed exclusively by Porsche and will be "lended" to Audi Sport for the eTron GT. Future midsized-to-large BEVs' from both Porsche and Audi will be underpinned by the new PPE (Premium Platform Electric) platform-which is said to be a substantially modified J1 derivative jointly developed by Porsche and Audi-featuring two "ride height" variants. It will almost certainly underpin future Bentley models and perhaps find its' way into future Lamborghini and Bugatti products as well.
 
No they don't, think about all the motorvehciles which have made the most impact on the world around us, Model T, Beetle, MINI, 2CV, Renault 4, Golf, Corrolla, F150, Jeep, none of those were premium vehciles.

...not to forget the FIAT Topolino and the rear-engined Cinquecento and 600.
 
I can't think of any vehicle thats been influenced influenced by the 911, how many other manufaturers have gone down the rear engined flat 6 rabbit hole?? I'll give you the S up to the W126 model.

Nope, it is Audi the company which has influenced the most the industry. LOL seriously, we get you love Audi and what else, but arguments can't barely be deffended.
 
Nope, it is Audi the company which has influenced the most the industry. LOL seriously, we get you love Audi and what else, but arguments can't barely be deffended.

If you want to go there, the C3 Audi 100 was a significant game changing vehicle and ahead of its time when launched.
 
If you want to go there, the C3 Audi 100 was a significant game changing vehicle and ahead of its time when launched.

Yeah mate, that's why everyone knows about the Audi 100 and always forgets about the mighty W126 S-Class.
 
If you want to go there, the C3 Audi 100 was a significant game changing vehicle and ahead of its time when launched.

Hmmm...could we give a big hand for the NSU Ro80 ? That car blew alot of minds at the 1967 IAA. Too bad that its' cantankerous Wankel rotary engine prevented it from being a sales success.
 
Yeah mate, that's why everyone knows about the Audi 100 and always forgets about the mighty W126 S-Class.

I didn’t forget about the mighty W126 S-Class, here’s what I wrote earlier.


I can't think of any vehicle thats been influenced influenced by the 911, how many other manufaturers have gone down the rear engined flat 6 rabbit hole?? I'll give you the S up to the W126 model.
 
Just how much of the Taycans' thunder will this car steal ?

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I know 'ring records are what everyone seems to care about, but shorter, twistier circuits would highlight the Taycan's abilities far better IMHO.
 
Autocar drove a pre-production model...

What is it?
For reasons I think I understand, this story feels different. Every week, we go some place to drive some thing, and lucky we are to do so. But to drive the first all-electric Porsche – well that, surely, is different.

Different because Porsche and electricity seem as natural a fit as fire and ice. Different because if Porsche really can pull it off and produce the world’s first electric production driver’s car, the ramifications could be enormous. But, for Porsche, perhaps not quite so enormous if it cannot.


Because of the way the media is micro-managed these days, especially with cars as important as this, there is still much about the Porsche Taycan I am not allowed to say, because the car has yet even to be unveiled. So far as official information is concerned, all that exists is what Porsche published when it revealed the Mission E concept in 2015, most of which is now obsolete.

If what follows seems more speculative than factual, you could nevertheless conclude that I know rather more than I’m saying, because not being specific was a condition of getting in the car. I shall therefore leave it to you to decide how well informed such speculation might be. In the words of Francis Urquhart: ‘You might think that. I couldn’t possibly comment…’

There are, in fact, two Taycans, at least that Porsche is owning up to. Actually, there’s certainly a third and very probably a fourth, but in these days of top-down launches, these are less powerful versions that have yet to be seen or driven, officially or otherwise. Which leaves us with the two top cars, widely rumoured to be called Turbo and Turbo S, in line with Porsche’s naming convention. (I know it seems strange given neither even has an engine let alone a turbocharger, but we’ll get used to it.)

Both have batteries rated above 90kWh and standard power outputs substantially in excess of 600bhp. The difference (besides the S having ceramic brakes, a stiffer set-up, standard four-wheel steering and 21in wheels clothed in high-performance tyres) is that while both will ‘overboost’ for 2.5sec at the time, the S will do so rather more, raising its total output to well over 700bhp, with in excess of 750lb ft.

So while the car is predictably heavy – think something around the 2.25-tonne mark – so too is it blindingly quick. The 0-62mph time of the Mission E was quoted at 3.2sec, and I’d expect a Taycan Turbo S to be as far below the three-second mark as the E was above it.

When I drove both cars in prototype form, their interiors were completely camouflaged but have since been revealed to feature next-generation high-definition imaging that, if you choose the optional passenger information display, provides TFT screens almost from wall to wall across the entire width of the car. It looks quite intimidating but, in terms of the admittedly limited operations I was able to use, it all works fairly intuitively.

What's it like?
And that is quite enough about the Taycan’s static qualities. You sit low in the car, in line with Porsche’s determination to present the Taycan as a sporting, driver’s machine, despite its mass, electric powertrain, four doors and (reasonably) spacious cabin. Shut your eyes and you could almost be in a 911.

Press a button to put the car in standby mode and depress a little lever to knock it into drive. We ease away from the Weissach test track and out onto the public road. The strange thing here is that, even having spent many hours in the Taycan’s passenger seat in the Arctic, I still don’t really know what to expect. Fact is that while electric cars from major manufacturers are becoming considerably more common, there has still never been one like this, or even remotely so. For all the apparent familiarity, this still feels like the biggest voyage into the unknown for years.

And yet… Sitting in this brand-new car with its brand-new platform and powertrain, here’s something very familiar. It feels like a Porsche. Not like a Cayenne or Panamera but – and it feels silly saying it, given the weight of the car and the length of its wheelbase – something closer to a 911. And I’ve not done 30mph yet. It’s all about the steering: the heft, the precision, the off-centre linearity all are cut straight from the Porsche sports car textbook.

I find it utterly surprising and profoundly reassuring, not least because now we’re out of Weissach and time is short. I have to drive fast right away, despite every other seat being occupied by Porsche engineers. I don’t much like driving rapidly with anyone in the car, let alone overseen by the best in the business, but there is no choice.

The Turbo S (if that is its name) is fast enough to make you feel giddy on overboost. The torque delivery is so instant, the acceleration so violent and explosive, that it’s briefly not that pleasant an experience. And that’s with 700bhp. I don’t find it hard to imagine what any one of the growing mob of 2000bhp electric hypercars will be like: I find it impossible.

The rate doesn’t really abate until you’re well into licence-losing territory, and you’ll be fearing for your liberty before it becomes in any way normal.

The sound? Unmistakably electric, for sure, but not unpleasant when extended, unlike many petrol engines, at least one of which is made by Porsche. There’s a sound enhancer that might on paper appear completely pointless because all it does is play an acoustically optimised version of what’s already there, but I quite liked it. It adds character to the car’s muted voice, and even if it’s only a sliver, it’s appreciated nonetheless.

We’re going fast now and I’m learning all the time. The suspension takes big chunks of Panamera componentry but the actual three-chamber struts are unique to the Taycan. The car rides eerily well but is so deftly damped in Sport and Sport Plus that with that steering and devastating acceleration, it’s monstrously fast from point to point, even on difficult roads. No car in my experience has ever managed this amount of mass so well. No, you can’t lob it as you might a shorter, lighter car, but once you’ve guided it into the apex, its composure is phenomenal.

But is it fun? Well, yes, because its capabilities will leave you slack-jawed and anything that can do that is always amusing, and no, because it’s still nothing like the fully immersive driving experience of, say, a 911. And with four doors, that mass and that wheelbase, but without a flat six or any gearbox, that’s not too surprising.

There’s still stuff I’d change here. Most notable is the lack of ‘engine’ braking when you come off the accelerator. It is Porsche philosophy that, broadly speaking, one pedal should make the car go and the other should make it stop, and while you can vary the degree of off-throttle deceleration, I’d like more, even at its peak in Sport Plus. I kept barrelling up to corners tapping a non-existent paddle for downshifts that weren’t there. You need to use the brakes – or what feel like the brakes – far more than in a normal car. In fact, up to 80% of the available deceleration does not require the massive discs at all. Took me a while to get my head around that one, too.

I have a smaller issue with the brakes themselves: buy a Turbo S and ceramics are standard, although I far preferred the meatier feel of the still mightily powerful tungsten-coated brakes on the Turbo.

In fact, with the Turbo costing around £15,000 less than the Turbo S at approximately £120,000, I’d seriously consider it for its smaller 20in wheels, even more compliant ride and better-feeling brakes, although I would tick the option for the S’s standard four-wheel steering, which helps to shrink the car in tight turns and provides formidable stability in quick curves. But most owners will, of course, fork out the additional £15,000, not for what it buys them but for what it saves them: the thought of friends and neighbours concluding that the additional letter is absent through finite financial resource.

Should I buy one?
Let’s for a minute forget the Taycan is electric. Just in terms of what and how it does what it does, is this a proper Porsche? In these days of Cayennes and Panameras, and based on first impressions of the prototypes I drove, unequivocally so.

If you want to enjoy driving a Porsche more than this, you need one with its engine behind the driver. And yet it’s one of the most comfortable GTs I’ve known and without question the quietest. In the distance and directions it is able to throw the net of its abilities, it is an astonishing, even an astounding, achievement.

Is this, then, the world’s first mainstream electric sports car? There I must stop you. It is sporting, for sure, and far more so than any other, but will Taycan owners set alarms and go for pre-dawn blasts – I mean whirrs – just because they can? That I doubt.

Then again, it is not that kind of car, and nor was it ever intended to be so. For now, the Taycan and its creators will have to be happy with having created the best electric car yet to go on sale, and having done so by a mile.

Porsche Taycan 2020 review | Autocar


...as did Top Gear:

Don’t tell me, another Taycan prototype passenger ride?



Ah-ha! Wrong! This time we’ve actually driven the first all-electric Porsche on actual public roads. Full disclosure – it was around 30 minutes behind the wheel, on some semi-decent, but not particularly fast roads near Porsche’s Weissach test track. Followed by a couple of hot laps on the track itself… in the passenger seat. Of a prototype.


Look, we’re as frustrated as you by the endless teasing leading up to the launch of the new Taycan (that’s ‘tie’, the thing you wear around your neck for job interviews, ‘can’) but in precisely a week from now we’ll get to see and learn about it in all its glory. For now you’ve got me in a stickered up test mule. Cynicism aside for one moment, there’s much to learn, and good news to report.


Go on then, let’s have all the details…


You can’t, yet. Porsche is holding most of the specifics back for its big reveal in a week’s time, but we’ve got everything bar the numbers. There will be the usual spread of performance levels available, but the car we were driving and riding in was the top of the range, the fastest, the best-equipped, the ultimate.

Rumours are it’ll be called the Taycan Turbo S, which seems absurd to use combustion engine terminology on a car that’s so clearly a fresh start for Porsche. If true, somebody has decided Turbo S is the only way to tell its most loyal (read: wealthiest) customers to forget the rest, this is the one you want.



That means ceramic brakes (420mm discs at the front), four-wheel drive, 21-inch wheels, three-chamber air suspension, electronic dampers, electronic rear differential, rear-wheel steering and a price somewhere north of £130k. Bells. And. Whistles. Lesser versions will follow, including an entry-level rear-wheel-drive version, but this is the Taycan living its best life.


Performance figures?


This is where it gets a little vague. Over 600bhp from a pair of electric motors (roughly 400bhp-odd to the rear, 200bhp to the front) one on each axle, possibly an overboost mode giving over 700bhp for short bursts. A kerb weight of over 2.2-tonnes, but still 0-62mph in under 3.0 seconds, 0-124mph in under 10 seconds and a top speed of 155mph.


Whispers of a two-speed gearbox, too, that unlocks maximum acceleration when you need it while allowing more efficient cruising at motorway speeds. WLTP range is expected to be somewhere between 250 and 300 miles.


But performance isn’t all about acceleration in an EV. The Taycan’s real differentiator is its 800V architecture, which makes its performance consistent and repeatable because there’s less heat in the motors and wires, and unlocks properly swift public charging. Porsche’s original aim with the Mission E concept was a zero to 80 per cent charge in 15 minutes; we’ll find out soon how close it’s got, and whether the patchy rapid charger infrastructure can support it.


You mentioned you drove it?


Ah yes. A sense of tightly-coiled energy under your right foot, a car that wants to leap forward with the merest brush of the throttle, but typically well-sorted to deal with low-speed driving.


The ride isn’t Bentley plush, but this is a so-called sports car still capable of oozing itself down the road at normal speeds, utterly silently, a whine from the motors only apparent when you really slam the throttle. Weirdly, it’s not the Taycan’s instant throttle response, its ability to deploy jowl-flapping forward force at the precise point you want it in a corner, that leaves the lasting impression. It’s the braking that scrambled my mind.


By default, lift off the throttle and you’ll coast along – the most natural sensation for keen drivers says Porsche – because only when you touch the middle pedal does the regen begin. A dial in front of you shows the point when regen hands over to mechanical friction, pads on discs, and you have to really stomp on them to get there. That means 90 per cent of the time the feedback you’re feeling from the brake pedal is synthetic, designed to mimic the resistance we’re accustomed to.


There’s room for improvement, but in a typically Porsche way, it’s brilliantly calibrated and better blended than anything similar we’ve tried. Plus, really stand on them and the regen system can deliver up to 265kW of charging power back to battery. On the other hand, use your Taycan exclusively for pootling around town and you could realistically not call on the physical braking system at all – the reason the standard steel rotors have a special tungsten coating to prevent them rusting through lack of use.


Bet it handles like a bus with all those batteries…


Not a bit of it. There’s a sense of mass, that you’re driving something substantial and sudden changes of direction could wrong-foot it, but because the centre of gravity is lower than a 911, and because the suspension is mostly Panamera with the full suite of electronics thrown at it, it stays eerily flat in the corners, tucking in smartly thanks to four-wheel steer and generally feeling half a tonne lighter than it should.


And as if to back up my point perfectly, Porsche put it around the Nürburgring a few days ago… in 7 minutes 42 seconds. Don’t know many buses that can do that.


Did you get a chance to launch it? Will it drift?


Not me, but my predictably handy taxi driver for our Weissach hot laps did, and I can report that it feels significantly quicker than 0-60mph in three seconds. My testicles are still finding their way back down and the blood has only just returned to the front half of my body. My words it’s quick – a proper fairground slug of G-Force, not a chirp from the wheels, no gearchanges to give your organs a breather.


It’s impressive, no doubt, but does it feel any different in a straight line to a Tesla Model S P100D? Nope. And right there is the challenge for makers of fast EVs: for now, extreme speed on tap is a novelty, but in the future differentiating your wares has to be a priority.


And yes, I can confirm that it will hang its back end out if you turn in on the brakes, wait for it to rotate then give it the berries. Handy when you’re after some gratuitous slidey photos to illustrate your story with, but patently not what the car’s designed for.

What is it designed for then?



To be the sportiest, best-handling EV available. And it succeeds. Porsche is pushing the idea that this is a sports car with four doors, but really it’s a GT – a rapid, refined saloon with proper space for passengers and their things that just happens to run on electricity.


Hats off to them for proving, through thorough engineering, that EVs needn’t be the compromise most of use assume they are. Yes, some character has been lost along the journey, but it’s startling in new and interesting ways. Ways that are more likely to entice the next tech-driven generation of car buyers.

Porsche Taycan review: our first go in Tesla's big rival
 
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"...10 Centimeter kürzer als ein Panamera."

So 4950mm in length it is then. Identical to that of the Cross Turismo concept.
 
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Porsche

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs, and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Owned by Volkswagen AG, it was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche. In its early days, Porsche was contracted by the German government to create a vehicle for the masses, which later became the Volkswagen Beetle. In the late 1940s, Ferdinand's son Ferry Porsche began building his car, which would result in the Porsche 356.
Official website: Porsche

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