The image above is from Jalopnik, who gave the story this headline:
The Porsche Taycan Turbo’s EPA Range Of 201 Miles Is So Bad Porsche Requested An Independent Test
Jalopnik
Yes, you read that right. The car that was supposed to get 300 miles of range is struggling to barely slip by the 200-mile mark. Volkswagen claims to be transitioning completely to electric vehicles, but the vehicles they’ve shown us so far –– the éTron and the Toucan –– don’t exactly help their credibility.
The U.S. government’s fuel economy site lists the Porsche Taycan Turbo’s rangecapacity at just 201 miles—far shorter than the estimated 280-mile range of the European WLTP testing standard for the same car.
This ranks the Taycan Turbo worse on range in the U.S. than every current Tesla model, the Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf, Audi E-Tron, and the Jaguar I-Pace. Nearly all of these vehicles feature a smaller battery than the Porsche’s 93.4 kWh pack.
Jalopnik
So, you’re telling me that Volkswagen (a supposed global leader in electrification) managed to make an EV that gets the worst range in the industry, using a bigger more expensive battery pack, and the starting price is $150,000 – $185,000?
Impressive work!
Seemingly in anticipation of poor EPA figures, Porsche has already done independent testing to try and improve the Taycan Turbo’s reputation. Porsche got AMCI testing to determine its own range estimates in various simulated real-world environments. The result was an estimated range of 275 miles:
Jalopnik
Uh-huh. Is it any surprise the company that brought us Dieselgate is now lying about their electric vehicle efficiency too?
But still, 201 miles is the number Porsche has to put on the window sticker, and that is an abysmal knock on someone’s initial impression of the car. It leaves the Taycan Turbo, on paper, as one of the most expensive, lowest-range electric vehicles on the market with performance that’s still slightly behind Tesla’s top performer.
Jalopnik
Spending $185,000 on an EV that’s already obsolete is socially irresponsible. People are starving out there. Get a Model S with Autopilot and donate the other half of what you were going to spend to a good cause.
EV owners reacted immediately on Twitter, noting that range and efficiency are about a lot more than just the distance you can travel between charges:
Remmeber when Porsche said the Taycan would get 300 miles of range? Well, the EPA rated the car… it barely got over 200 🤭😬
Tweet
Where are all the Tesla FUDsters (speigallorahulllatimes) on this news? My long bet is that they are cowering under a rock; hoping this nightmare will someday end.
Thanks VW for reinforcing what Tesla longs have known for a long time: ELON is God.
I’m really puzzled about this result. Normally we see the biggest discrepancy between EPA numbers and numbers under other test regimes (which use lower speeds) for vehicles with bad aerodynamics — but the aerodynamics of the Taycan are actually very good…
if the étron is at 204 with the same size battery pack and the taycan gets better performance but is more aerodynamic is makes sense they would be around the same
With electric motors, the efficiency impact of higher performance alone is not all that huge… But that’s actually beside the point here.
The efficiency of the e-tron plummets like a brick at higher speeds… Because, well, it has the aerodynamics of a brick. The Taycan on the other hand is much sleeker, and thus shouldn’t lose quite as much efficiency at higher speed — yet it does. Must be something weird with their drive train somehow becoming less efficient at higher speeds…