Not too long ago, Porsche released the entry-level Taycan, a single-motor rear-wheel-drive version of its all-electric sedan that is down on power compared to its siblings but also down on price.
However, it's hard to underestimate just how big the performance gap is between this budget Taycan and the top version, the 751 hp (761 PS) Turbo S. Let's just say the plain vanilla Taycan gets far less than half the power output of the top dog, and with only the rear wheels spinning, it's also less efficient in the way it puts that power on the ground.
One can safely assume the Taycan is not built for drag racing, so then what is it made for? Well, you could say "efficiency," and you wouldn't be wrong; it doesn't have an EPA rating yet, but it's definitely going to be the best out of all Taycans. Still, the main raison d'etre behind this entry-level version is exactly that: lowering the price access point for anyone interested in owning an electric Porsche.
Just because it's more affordable than the Turbo S, that doesn't mean it's cheap. Far from it. Like the power output, it cuts the price below the half-way point, but with the Turbo S costing dangerously close to $200,000, that leaves the plain Taycan with an MSRP of $79,900. Not bad for a Porsche, electric or otherwise.
Making it more affordable, however, means the Taycan has now become eligible for price-based direct comparison with other EVs - cars like, say, a Tesla Model Y Performance. The quickest version of Tesla's compact crossover actually still goes for less money than the Taycan, but it's there or thereabouts.
When it comes to performance, the two aren't as closely matched. Since it's a Tesla, we don't know the exact power output of its two motor units, but they say it's somewhere around 500 hp. With the Taycan's rear motor delivering a measly - by comparison - 402 hp (408 PS). Mind you, that's just during Launch Control. And for two seconds. For the rest of the time, it has 321 hp (326 PS) to play with.
So, less power, more weight, RWD-only - have these guys set the Taycan to fail? Well, you'd be fooling yourself if you were thinking otherwise. Still, a few standing quarter-mile runs later, the Porsche driver reckons it might stand a chance in a rolling race as that would cancel the Model Y's AWD advantage. Was he right? Well, we'll leave that out for you to discover. First race is at 5:25, rolling race at 7:40.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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