Porsche Taycan is no Tesla fighter

When the Porsche Taycan arrives in Australia in late 2020, it will offer exceptional driving dynamics and warp-speed acceleration time and again with almost no performance degradation.

Topped by the tyre-shredding 560kW Porsche Taycan Turbo S that will also have an eye-wateringly high price tag – more than $300,000 is tipped – the Taycan already a sell-out success; the company has clocked up 25,000 pre-orders despite initial plans to build only 20,000 vehicles per annum.

But like every serious EV that arrives on the market, the Porsche Taycan will inevitably be compared to a Tesla EV.

This is not something Porsche execs like to talk about; nor do they appreciate comparisons between the Taycan and Model S sedans when it comes to driving range or acceleration.

But the fact is the Porsche Taycan's maximum range of 463km can't match the longest-range Tesla Model S, which has a WLTP rating of 600km, and the quickest Taycan’s 2.8-sec 0-100km/h claim still falls short of the top Tesla’s (2.6sec), at least on paper.

Porsche's head of EV projects Stefan Weckbach told us he doesn't feel the need to address those elephants in the room, and he clearly doesn’t see driving distance as the ultimate measure of an electric vehicle, not least a Porsche EV.

“I don’t know why we should address it,” he said.

“We have developed the Taycan as a true Porsche. We have set our targets in terms of performance, in terms of charging speed, in terms of range, in terms of design quality, you name it.”

For the record, the Tesla Model S was first released in 2012 and since 2016 has been available in P100D form with a 100kWh battery, offering 555km of range and 0-100km/h acceleration in just 2.6sec in 592kW/1373Nm Performance guise ($142,300 plus on-road costs) with optional Ludicrous Mode.

A cheaper ($123,500), lower-output Long Range version ups the range to 600km but reduces the 0-100km/h time to 3.8sec.

Meantime, the Porsche Taycan 4S, Turbo and Turbo S come with a lower-energy 94kWh battery (optional in the 4S, which comes standard with 79kWh), hit 100km/h in a claimed 4.0sec, 3.2sec and 2.8sec and offer 463km, 450km and 412km of range respectively.

Pricing is expected to be $200K, $250K and $300K respectively and power outputs range from 390 to 560kW for the Turbo S, which also delivers 1050Nm.

Porsche almost certainly benchmarked the Tesla Model S and tested lower-output, higher-range versions of the Taycan during its development, but Weckbach refused to address the range issue and preferred to focus on vehicle performance and dynamics.

“The press likes to talk and write about the Tesla-fighter,” he said.

“We as Porsche basically concentrated on ourselves from the very beginning. Our internal targets in terms of making two things sure [were] on the one hand the Taycan becoming a true Porsche, and also coming as close as possible to our icon the 911.

“Obviously, we do have a look at all our competitors – in the SUV segment, in the sedan segment – but it's not the way that there was like only one competitor we focussed on, definitely not,” said Weckbach.

It goes without saying the Porsche Taycan will run rings around the three Tesla vehicles currently available – Model 3 medium sedan, Model S large sedan and Model X large SUV – in a dynamic sense.

Porsche has already demonstrated the durability, repeatable performance and overall prowess of the Taycan Turbo S with a lap record at the Nurburgring, which Tesla has subsequently attempted to beat, and its reputation for reliability and understating its performance claims is well known.

But there's no denying Tesla set the agenda and arguably forced mainstream car-makers to fast-track their EV programs.

Tesla has done things very differently to mainstream car-makers, from the way it sells cars to the way it designs its vehicle interiors, with just one screen and no instrument panel as seen on the Model 3.

It's true the US EV-maker has been criticised for poor build quality, slow delivery times and a cavalier attitude to autonomous driving functionality.

But although Tesla is yet to turn a profit, it has found hundreds of thousands of ambassadors in the form of its customers, who readily defend the brand and its products (and even its unconventional CEO Elon Musk).

In this respect Weckbach, after saying he was “… not going to comment on competitors”, conceded Tesla has done a good job.

“They have their own offering,” said Porsche’s EV chief.

“It's another car, another market and I think Tesla has done a wonderful job for the last five years.

“They’ve been driving e-mobility globally, they’ve been offering three really nice cars, but it’s a Tesla and we have developed a Porsche. Different car, different approach.”