Shoppers looking at Porsche’s all-electric Taycan sedan have a new, considerably less-expensive option to consider. Porsche has unveiled the Taycan’s trim levels in reverse order, bringing us the base model last. They seem to have been holding it back to provide a surprise.
The base model (simply called the Taycan) starts at $81,250. That’s nearly $23,000 less than the next step up, the Taycan 4S, which carries an MSRP of $104,150. You could buy two of the new model for the cost of one top-of-the-line Taycan Turbo S, which starts at $186,350.
Porsche says the Taycan is the highest-performance base model it’s ever made. The single rear motor produces 402 horsepower and gets from zero to sixty miles per hour in 5.1 seconds. The battery charges to 80 percent of its capacity in under 23 minutes. In European testing, it achieved a range of 267 miles, though U.S. testing tends to produce lower numbers.
Standard features include 19-inch wheels, Porsche Active Suspension Management, and over-the-air updates to provide periodic enhancements at no cost. Options include 20-inch wheels, adaptive air suspension, and a “performance battery plus” that boosts power to 469 horsepower but adds 170 pounds of weight, leaving it with largely the same acceleration as the standard car.
