Porsche Taycan Teased Ahead Of Debut — German Tesla Model S Rival Is Nearly Here

German sports car manufacturer Porsche has released new teaser images and more details about the Taycan EV. The all-new Porsche Taycan will be the first ever pure electric vehicle from Porsche and is currently in the final stages of testing. The Taycan is expected to be revealed in production guise later this year at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show.

The Porsche Taycan will be the production version of the Mission E Concept revealed at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. Porsche revealed that the production-spec Mission E would bear the name Taycan in June 2018 at the 70 Years of Porsche celebrations. The word Taycan is Turkish for 'lively young horse', which is a reference to the steed on the Porsche badge.

Since it received the green signal to put the Taycan into production, Porsche has been vigorously testing the Tesla Model S-rivalling Taycan in a whole host of conditions. Porsche claims that Taycan prototypes have covered approximately six million kilometres across 30 countries around the world.

In that time, Porsche claims that the Taycans have been charged 100,000 times using various charging technologies across the globe. A team of around 1,000 test drivers, technicians and engineers have tested the Taycan in temperatures ranging from minus 35 to plus 50 degree Celsius with air humidity between 20 and 100 per cent. During testing, the Porsche Taycan has been driven in altitudes ranging from 85 metres below to 3,000 metres above sea level.

The Taycan has now entered its final phase of testing and multiple prototypes of the Porsche EV are scattered across the globe as the German carmaker puts the finishing touches to the four-door electric coupe. Porsche is finalising the driving dynamics of the sports EV near the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia. Porsche is also testing the EV in Dubai (battery charging and endurance runs in extreme temperatures) and in South Africa where the performance of the EV is being finalised.

The Porsche Taycan is expected to go on sale in 2020 and the German sports car manufacturer has stated that there are 20,000 serious potential buyers. The Taycan uses two synchronous motors to cranks out around 600bhp and the battery pack has a range of 500 kilometres according to the NEDC cycle. With its fast charging setup, Porsche claims that the Taycan can get back up to 100 kilometres of range after a four-minute charge.