Porsche Taycan - first 'drivers' EV?

[TheDeuce]

mids said:

I scoffed when I heard that Tesla were going to try take on the Taycan with a Model S at the ring but having just watched their Laguna Seca lap with their Plaid powertrain....

https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/11719536468980121...

I think it was fair to scoff on the assumption it would be (more or less) the Model S that we can buy today.

This is effectively the Roadster powertrain shoe-horned in to a model S - Impressive no doubt, but not really a comparison to the Taycan or any other EV that is currently in production. Having said that, this is a very cunning move by Elon. All that matters is a 'Model S' goes round faster than the Taycan, regardless of whether or not it demonstrates anything particularly relevant.

I really hope the Roadster is a proper drivers car when it is released though, as opposed to a quarter mile/EV muscle car etc.

[TheDeuce]

otolith said:

I wasn’t really thinking about advances in tech, more that if you tried to build a small electric sports car from the ground up rather than stuffing electric gubbins into an Elise you would probably be able to do so more efficiently.

The battery upgrade Tesla offered in 2014 from 53kWh to 70kWh in the same packaging was claimed to be only “slightly” heavier, so I would assume that a new 53kWh battery in 2019 would be a bit lighter than the one they used in 2008.

53kw > 70kw is a third more storage, and subsequently approx a third heavier could be described as 'slightly' heavier I guess. To be fair there have been minor improvements to packaging and weight and they do all add up, I'm sure the increase in weight was less than the increase in capacity, relatively speaking.

So yes, if you built the original roadster equivalent today it would be a little better, and if it was built ground-up, quite a bit better I suspect, for various reasons. But in terms of the limits of power/capacity/weight and the effect on performance, there has been no significant improvement. With the next generation of battery tech however, the improvement will be night and day.

[TheDeuce]

mids said:

Well he's said it's a model S that's going into production next year so I think that's fair enough.

That does make it fair enough - assuming it's not also very heavily modified for this track, to a point that we will never be able to buy the same car with the same abilities.

It also gives everyone else in the EV game time to think about how to come back with better too. Which honestly, is great - it's these battles that are pushing the industry forward and providing some amazing cars as a result

I have to maintain though that unless the new Model S is available with far bigger brakes and better chassis/steering control than the current one, it's still not going to be a real drivers car. Not that it should be, it doesn't need to be.