Porsche Taycan to have 250 kW charging at launch, promised 350 kW coming in 2021

Porsche is getting ready to bring the Taycan, its first all-electric car, to production in the next few months and it started giving test rides to some European media to hype the car.

In one of those test rides, Porsche revealed that the Taycan will have 250 kW charging at launch and the promised 350 kW capacity is not coming until 2021.

Ever since unveiling the Mission E, the concept on which the Taycan is based, the best selling point for the electric car was Porsche’s new 800-volt system to enable a new segment-leading 350 kW charging capacity.

However, UK’s Car Magazine revealed in their test ride that the Taycan will launch with a 250 kW capacity and the originally promised 350 kW charge rate will come later:

“By 2021 at the latest, peak charging power is set to increase from 250 to 350kW, which should – in combination with those latest 800-volt charge points – reduce charging time to a swift 14 minutes.”

Currently, Tesla’s Model 3 is leading the EV market with a 250 kW charge capacity enabled earlier this year.

With the test ride, Porsche also revealed to the magazine some of the production specs of the Taycan:

“The base Taycan is rear-drive only, sports a 80kWh battery and is powered by a choice of 322bhp or 376bhp motors. The next model up, which for now we believe will be badged Carrera 4S, is equipped with a 96kWh battery pack, and offers 429bhp or 483bhp. The top model – the ‘Turbo’ we’re driving – will cost perhaps £120,000. All-wheel drive and the bigger battery are standard on the more powerful two versions. An even more potent 724bhp Turbo S and a lighter rear-drive GTS are still to be signed off.”

Interestingly, the version tested was a four-seater. The Mission E was originally a four-seater, but Porsche has been expected to change the design to a five-seater for the production version.

The German automaker has also been talking about making sure that the Taycan is going to be a track-ready vehicle.

Porsche has previously mentioned that unlike Tesla’s performance vehicles, the Taycan is going to be able to maintain continuous higher power output for long periods of time.

Bernd Propfe, Porsche platform director for the Taycan, told the magazine that Taycan owners are going to be able to do 10 full-throttle 0-62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) launches without a decrease in performance.

They also included some interesting dynamic features, according to the magazine:

“High-tech dynamic goodies are key. The complex set-up includes air suspension (except on the base car), all-wheel drive (rear-drive for the base car), rear-wheel steering on some models, 48-volt anti-roll bars, active aerodynamics, and steel brakes with serious stopping power. The pulse inverter that masterminds the torque vectoring acts five times faster than chips that govern conventional four-wheel-drive systems. Forget stability management by brake actuation: the Taycan’s black box controls everything by wheel-selective torque feed. ‘Zero loss, 100 per cent dynamic efficiency,’ grins Weckbach.”

All the details are expected to be revealed at the launch of the production version of the Taycan in September.

Electrek’s Take

That’s disappointing. The 350 kW charging capacity was definitely the most anticipated feature of the Taycan and now it’s not going to be available at launch.

Now the biggest question is: will it be available through a software update for original owners in 2021 or it will be an upgraded charging capacity for new cars?

The former is OK, but the latter would be a major disappointment.

As for the rest of the specs, it’s about in line with expectations. It should be a really great car — just not the Tesla killer that many were expecting.