Porsche to Double Production of the Taycan Electric Sedan

author: FutureCar Staff    

The Porsche Taycan

German automaker Porsche is already planning to double the production of the upcoming Taycan, the automaker's first fully-electric sedan. The Taycan is expected to become a strong competitor to Tesla's Model S, which first Tesla launched back in 2012.

Speaking with CNBC, Porsche said that stronger-than-expected demand has led it to boost production of the electric Taycan from 20,000 to 40,000 units, the company confirmed to on Wednesday.

"We had been ready for it," said Andrew Lennon, a manager of product communications for Porsche to CNBC. "We had the ability to increase capacity from the beginning, and executives recently made the decision to go ahead."

Porsche first unveiled the electric sedan as the Mission E concept in 2015 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, before renaming the production version the Taycan earlier this year.

Porsche announced a second variation of the vehicle based on the Cross Turismo wagon concept in October. The company began taking orders last summer and expects the car to be available for sale in the U.S. by the end of the year.

The Porsche Sport Turismo will be an all-electric wagon

The Taycan is yet another example of several high-end electric cars expected to enter the market over the next few years. For example, Jaguar launched the I-Pace electric crossover last year while Audi's first fully electric SUV the e-tron is due later this year.

A Direct Challenger to Tesla's Model S

Since launching the Model S nearly seven years ago, Tesla has remained virtually unchallenged in the luxury electric car space. At the time, no other automaker offered a luxurious, full-size electric sedan with a 300-mile range.

As a pioneer in the electric car space, Tesla showed rival automakers that its possible to build an appealing, high-performance electric vehicle that people actually want to drive.

Since introducing the Model S, Tesla has inspired other automakers to one-up each other and release their own fully-electric models.

Last year, Stefan Weckbach, the head of battery electric vehicles at Porsche, claimed the upcoming Taycan will "perform better and more consistently than Tesla's Model S."

Porsche may also beat Tesla on price with the Taycan. Although no official pricing has been announced yet, Tesla's P100 Model S with Autopilot starts at $99,000, according to Tesla's website. Porsche said in December that the entry level Taycan would be priced around $90,000.

In February 2018, Porsche announced that it will double its investment to $7.4 billion on electric mobility by 2022. Included in this spending plan was $620 million for the development of Taycan.

FutureCar Staff