Commentary on the new Porsche Taycan Turbo S.

G anm honest: When I read that the Taycan top model should actually be called “Turbo S”, I thought that was a little bit silly. There is definitely a lot in the car, just no turbo. Unless you think of some kind of fan that makes the batteries particularly effective ... but let's leave that. The name fits the rest of the Porsche model range. That was the idea. You can get upset about it now. Then you have to do that at Mercedes or Audi, who have been sticking model and engine abbreviations on cars for years that no longer have anything to do with the displacement from which they were once derived.

Will that harm the success of the Taycan? Proven not. When they started mass production out of the ground in Zuffenhausen, it was about 20,000 Taycans per year. In the meantime it will probably be 40,000 a year and I am very sure that that will not be enough either. Because they built a Porsche at Porsche. No car that will save the world. And no Tesla killer either. You can find both a shame personally, but it is exactly right.

I don't want to imagine the malice and wailing in the automotive filter bubble if the Porsche developers had focused on it, a kind of sporty Tesla - Develop Model S clone. But they don't have. Rather, they came up with the Taycan. An electric Porsche, full of playful, ambitious technical features (800 volt technology) and an Competition toughness, that currently only a Porsche can.

Sure, a Tesla Model S 100D comes (with something larger battery) probably 100 kilometers further. And maybe the American will even win the 0 to 100 km /h sprint. And now? Nobody says that the Tesla is a bad car. A couple of weeks ago, my colleague Alexander Bloch demonstrated quite impressively how well a Tesla Model 3 performs in comparison with a BMW 3 Series. But again: it has very little to do with the Porsche Taycan.

According to all we know, it will drive all current series electric cars on the racetrack and when it comes to driving dynamics. That is and will remain the Porsche DNA, whether with a combustion engine or battery. In combination with an exceptionally high-quality workmanship, fans and customers of the brand worldwide are willing to pay significantly more for it than they would withthe competition would have to do. Nevertheless, an additional 60,000 euros for a Tesla Model S is of course a word. But only this much: Elon Musk does not have to, does not want to or cannot earn any money with his company so far. You don't have that luxury at Porsche. You now have the Taycan. And, at least from my point of view, it does pretty much pretty much right.