Porsche's Tesla rival will be called the Taycan - here's what we know about the car
- Porsche's first fully-electric car will be called the Taycan, the company revealed on Friday.
- The vehicle had previously been known as the Mission E.
- It will have a range of over 300 miles, produce over 600 horsepower, and accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 3.5 seconds.
- The Taycan will compete against Tesla's Model S sedan.
Porsche's first fully-electric car will be called the Taycan, the company revealed on Friday. The name roughly translates to, "lively, young horse," a reference to the company's logo.
The vehicle had previously been known as the Mission E. It will have a range of over 300 miles, produce over 600 horsepower, and accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 3.5 seconds.
The Taycan will compete against Tesla's Model S sedan. Between its two premium trims, the Model S has a maximum range of 335 miles and can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds.
The Taycan is expected to arrive in 2019 and start around $75,000.
In February, Porsche's head of electric vehicles, Stefan Weckbach, said the Taycan will be able to sustain its performance better than the Model S. The Taycan "will offer reproducible performance and a top speed which can be maintained for long periods," he said.
Weckbach also hinted at driver-assistance features, like the ability to autonomously park or stop and start in traffic. The vehicle is expected to have other high-tech features, like a digital instrument panel that mirrors the driver's movements and a dashboard drivers can control with gestures through a holographic display.
Porsche will invest over $7 billion in electric vehicles and related technology by 2022. Over $580 million will be allocated to the production of the Taycan and other vehicles based on it, including a crossover previously known as Mission E Cross Turismo.
By the end of 2019, Porsche plans to install at least 500 fast-chargers across the US that will rival Tesla's Supercharger network, which consists of over 10,000 chargers worldwide. Porsche's 800-volt chargers will be able to give a vehicle an 80% charge in 20 minutes.