Musk Should Be Worried About Porsche
The Taycan Turbo GT makes the Model S Plaid look tame.
Last month, Porsche unveiled its updated Taycan EV. This was far from a simple mid-lifecycle facelift and more like a complete reworking, with the range, charge times and performance taking a significant leap forward. But now, Porsche has revealed the ultimate Taycan, the Turbo GT. Not only does this EV utterly trounce anything Tesla has to offer, but it can embarrass hypercars around the track. Needless to say, it has taken Musk’s EV performance crown away. But the impact of this incredible car could be far broader reaching. Let me explain.
Let’s start with the specs of the Turbo GT. Under normal conditions, it has 789 horsepower, but during launch control, it has 1,033 horsepower, and in “Attack Mode”, which lasts for 10 seconds, it delivers a whopping 1,108 horsepower! This hurls the car from 0 to 62 mph in a staggering 2.2 seconds in its Weissach pack trim, which is lighter thanks to the rear seats being removed, and 2.3 seconds for the ordinary Turbo GT. Despite the performance, the car is still remarkably efficient, getting 345 miles of range from its 105 kWh battery. In fact, it uses the same 800V battery found in the lower trims, meaning the Turbo GT can charge at peak rates of 320 kW and charge from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes.
There are only two ways the Model S Plaid beats the Turbo GT. It has less peak horsepower with 1,019, a slower 0–62 mph of 2.28 seconds (on a non-prepared surface with no roll-out), a smaller battery at 100 kWh and slower charging with a peak of 250 kW and 10% to 80%, taking 30 minutes. However, it has a slightly longer range at 373 miles WLTP and is cheaper at around £113,000 compared to the £186,000 of the Porsche. However, the Porsche’s faster charging makes it a better road trip car, and the quality of its build more than justifies the extra expense.
But, as any Porsche owner will tell you, there is more to them than their specs, and this is where the Turbo GT outshines any EV on sale today. You see, Porsche has been busy testing and refining it, ensuring it handles exquisitely. As such, it has already broken several track records. It set a new EV record around Nürburgring when it set a time of only 7:07.55, which is a massive 18 seconds faster than the Model S Plaid, the previous record holder. That time is also faster than Porsche’s own 911 GT3 or its 918 hybrid hypercar! But the Turbo GT really shines around mid-speed circuits like Laguna Seca where it set a time of 1 minute 27.8 seconds. That’s only half a second slower than a million-pound McLaren Senna!
So, with the Turbo GT, Porsche has solved one of the most significant issues with EVs. You see, even though EVs like the Model S Plaid are great in a straight line, almost all automotive journalists and enthusiasts hated how it handled. It was big, cumbersome and unsophisticated in the corners to excite them. As such, it was only really useful at the drag strip or a traffic light race. Porsche has made an EV with the same blistering acceleration but with the handling to enable it to chase down hypercars on a track that costs five times as much! Moreover, they have been able to do this while keeping its range high and charging speeds quick, making it a truly useful long-distance cruiser. So, if you are in the market for a high-performance car that can do everything, why would you get anything else? Porsche has now made the combustion engine redundant in performance cars.
As such, Porsche will likely be flooded with orders for the Turbo GT, not from EV fans but from genuine automotive enthusiasts. Winning over this niche but surprisingly large group of buyers will significantly bolster Porsche’s EV push and potentially starve Tesla’s higher-end sales. What’s more, the technology in the Turbo GT will undoubtedly trickle down into other VW products. As performance is now the only real difference between VW group mass-market EVs and the Model 3/Y, this trickle-down could quickly close the gap between the two. We are already seeing this with the new Macan EV and the other EVs that are planned to share its platform.
This is why Musk should be worried about the Taycan Turbo GT. It shows that the gap between Tesla and other EV manufacturers is closing rapidly, and in some cases, such as the Turbo GT, they have already overtaken Tesla. It also demonstrates that Tesla can’t dominate every niche of the automotive world without offering significantly more models designed from the ground up to be fit for purpose. Yes, the second-generation Tesla Roadster is meant to be coming soon, but at this point, the project is already four years late, and many suspect it is pure vapourware. In short, this is not the end of Tesla; we are just entering an era where they no longer rule.
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Source: CarWow, Top Gear, Porsche, EV Database, Electrek, Motor Trend, Will Lockett, Car And Driver, Fastest Laps