Porsche’s Taycan is an incredible feat of engineering. Not only does it drive great for an electric car, it drives great for a Porsche. It is arguably the best car the company has delivered in its history. Until just now, the Taycan has been rather on the pricey side of six figures. With the unveiling of the standard Taycan model, however, featuring rear wheel drive, 402 horsepower, and over 250 miles of range for under 80 grand, Porsche has its mass market winner. This thing will be ruling the roads of coastal American suburbia before long.
While Elon Musk has vowed to price his base Model S at the eyeroll-inducing figure of $69,420, Porsche won’t stoop quite that low. You’ll have to pay just a bit more than that for a new Taycan, as it starts at $79,900. Keep in mind, however, that the Tesla is no longer eligible for the $7,500 federal tax incentive, while the Porsche is. In a fair fight between Tesla and Porsche, the German is going to win out on quality and value every time. SMH, you can’t even do Apple CarPlay in the Tesla, but the Porsche has it wireless, son!
The standard Taycan is available with two different battery options. The Performance Battery option gets you 79.2 kWh of power, which is good for 402 horses and a WLTP range of 267 miles. The Performance Battery Plus upgrade delivers 93.4 kWh, 469 ponies, and a quoted range of 300 miles. Once the EPA gets its hands on those range ratings, you can expect them to shrink by around 10 percent. Both batteries are rated at the same charging speed, namely from 5 to 80 percent state of charge in under 23 minutes, or 5 minutes of charging will get you over 60 miles of range.
Porsche managed to move 20,000 Taycans in 2020, so you can bet that number is going to be significantly higher in 2021 thanks to this big price cut for the single-motor model. It’ll probably handle even better, considering it will drop some poundage and allow the steering axle to focus on just steering instead of steering and driving. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still holding out hope for a Taycan GT3, but for now, if you were looking for an electric track-worthy sedan, it would be this one.
With this drop Porsche not only proves the Taycan looks prettiest in pink (or rather Frozen Berry Metallic), but it’s the absolute pick of the litter on the lot these days. There is very little on a Porsche lot I’d consider buying these days, but given I had the cash laying around to plonk down on anything with a Porsche crest, you can bet it would be this.
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