German sportscar manufacturer Porsche had announced an all-electric sports car, named ‘Taycan’. The new performance-oriented sports car will be the brands first full-electric sports car. Porsche in a teaser video showed the silhouette of the car and its name ‘Taycan’ – which, according to Porsche, means “Lively Young Horse”.
A while back, the car was spotted being tested in its camouflage covers and not much was revealed from the low-resolution pictures that had emerged on the internet. And now the Porsche Taycan has been spotted again testing in the open, sans camouflage, except for a few bits.
The new all-electric Porsche Taycan is a four-door performance-oriented sports car which has the Porsche ‘Mission-E’ concept design language as seen in the spy pictures. On its front, the car has a recessed headlight with a transparent cover and the design is similar to the Mission- E concept car which was showcased back in 2015. The front bumper has vertical air intakes on the outer sides with a sleek horizontal LED light and a large sharp splitter. The headlights had camouflage stickers around them to hide the fine details but they look finished and production ready. The rear end of the car has a large diffuser without any exhaust pipes, obviously. But many test mules were seen in the past with fake exhaust pipes. The tail lights are large LED units which take their inspiration from the brand’s flagship car, the ‘911’.
According to the images when viewed from the side, the Taycan has flush door integrated handles and the car sports large alloy wheels and yellow painted brake calipers.
The Taycan is expected to be powered by two Permanently Excited Synchronous Motors (PSM) which can generate a combined output of over 440 kW / 600 HP coupled to a high-density lithium-ion battery which is roughly 270 watt-hours per kilogram that can give a real-world range of over 500 km on a single charge at an optimal operating temperature between 20 degrees to 40 degrees Celsius. The Porsche Taycan has an 800-volt charger which has a charging capacity of 350 kW, more than double, as compared to the Tesla’s 120 kW charge rate. The batteries can be charged for a range of around 400 km in approximately 15 minutes and Porsche is planning to deploy 500 charging stations in North America by next year.
Porsche plans to produce 20,000 units per year of the Electric Vehicle and according to reports, it has already produced 100 prototypes of the Taycan out of which 21 have been put in South Africa’s hot environment for testing. The Porsche Taycan’s electric powertrain will have gone through more than a million kilometers of testing by the time it comes in production next year in 2020. Will Porsche be able to convince its fans with an all-electric sports car?