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World premiere for Porsche's electric car: fig leaf with 761 hp

2019-09-04T15:46:24.491Z


After four years of PR foreplay, Porsche finally pulls the towel off his first, right electric car: Taycan. The racer with 761 hp is for the manufacturer from Zuffenhausen lifeboat and risk at the same time.



It is shortly before 15:30 clock in Neuhardenberg, in a huge solar park near Berlin Porsche CEO Oliver Blume goes straight: "This day marks the beginning of a new era," he shouts into the audience. In parallel, the sports car manufacturer at Niagara Falls hydroelectric power plant in New York State (9:30 local time) and Pingtan Island in a wind farm off the coast of China (21:30 local time) unveiled that car and Porsche's continued existence to secure: The Taycan.

It is the first real electric car that puts the sports car blacksmith on the wheels. Well, 120 years ago, there was already one from Porsche, the so-called "Lohner-Porsche". But this was a partially electrified carriage and was only enough for a marginal note in the history of automobiles. The Taycan is to get another status: The hip flask with the silhouette of the 911 and the four doors of the Panamera to bring Porsche past Tesla to the top of the luxury Stromer. At least the customer interest seems to exist: According to information from Porsche, 30,000 people have virtually made a down payment in the last few months and thus bought a place right at the top of the list. And not cheap: First, at least 152,136 euros cost Porsche's electric premiere.

The threefold world premiere at iconic locations around the world culminates in a PR campaign unlike anything that has ever been orchestrated by any other manufacturer. It's been four years since Porsche unveiled the Mission E study at the Frankfurt Motor Show and announced its entry into electromobility. Since then hardly a month has passed since the Swabians did not blow up any new micro-information on the project according to all the rules of the art. At least in this discipline, Porsche has caught up with Tesla and Elon Musk.

Damned to success

Brand expert Professor Franz-Rudolf Esch from Saarlouis also finds words of praise for the lively communication: "Porsche has expressed with Mission E the importance of the new Taycan for the future of the company created a great expectation for an electric Porsche and completely interwoven it with the DNA of the brand. "

There was a dedicated microsite titled "Tribute of Tomorrow". A specially developed app for a virtual test drive. Even to the buyers of tomorrow was thought and the Mission E placed in the current "Playmobil" movie. For Esch, 30,000 pre-orders are proof enough for the success of the campaign. "The most pre-orders coming from Norway's electric pioneer Norway are another indicator of the success of the campaign," says the expert.

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World premiere for the Porsche Taycan: Extreme electric car

Porsche, as a closely linked racing company, with tens of thousands of victories in its annals, is condemned to success in its mission. The gigantic marketing campaign is risk minimization, the premiere, for which the guests were traveling more CO2 than the first annual production of the Stromer might save, a necessary evil.

For parts of the customer base, Porsche's e-strategy is controversial

"For Porsche, the Taycan is both a survival-important and a risky project," says automotive economist Stefan Bratzel the gigantic effort of the Swabians. On the other hand, the electrification of the Porsche DNA is a difficult undertaking, which is controversial in the existing customer base, "says the professor at the College of Business in Bergisch Gladbach the balancing act , "There must be the first shot".

Porsche wants to invest € 6 billion in electromobility by 2022 and by 2025 it will have an electrification share of 50 percent (much of it plug-in hybrid). The next novelties are already announced with the Taycan Cross Tourismo as a jacked wagon and the electric Macan. Until there is also a genuine sports car of the format of a 911 or 718 without burners, it is probably only a matter of time.

The sportiness, the so-called DNA of the brand, is a permanent theme, even at the premiere near Berlin. Development Director Michael Steiner comes in the same horn: "We have promised a real Porsche for the era of electromobility - a fascinating sports car, which not only excites technologically and driving dynamics, but fascinated people worldwide as well as its legendary predecessors.

781 HP - Porsche's own definition of sustainability

The man who is to fuel this enthusiasm and take over this delivery is Stefan Weckbach and has led the project with the internally sober abbreviation "J1". And he has given the Taycan everything it needs. Up to 761 hp and 1050 Nm of torque afford the two engines and catapult the all-wheel drive therefore in the best of 2.8 seconds from 0 to 100. Because Porsche unlike Mercedes in EQ C and Audi in the e-tron a two-stage gearbox, are equally unrivaled as meaningful from a sustainability point of view pointless 260 km / h maximum speed possible. And because the Taycan has a lower center of gravity than a 911 GT3, because it gets air suspension and four-wheel steering, it stands - as shown in recent test drives - the balancing act between luxurious travel comfort and round-trip capability.

While Weckbach serves the values ​​of the old world, after all, he makes the interior of the jump a new time: Consistently he has retired almost all the switch and paved the cockpit so full of displays and touchscreens, as it is known only from Byton. Even the hitherto sacred tachometer in a prominent position behind the wheel there is (logically) not anymore. But at least survives the start button, which sits as a sensor field continues to the left of the steering wheel.

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Autograph Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo: Study trip

The fresh cell treatment works: even the giant tablets from Tesla look pretty dusty. Porsche also goes a step further than the competition when it comes to charging: Because the Taycan uses an on-board voltage of 800 instead of 400 volts for the first time, it taps the electricity faster than others. Plugged in at the right column, it takes five minutes to load for 100 kilometers and barely more than 20 minutes to charge 80 percent.

The past, she does not release Porsche

If you believe the Expertem, the bill for Porsche could rise: Everything says that the Taycan is an extraordinary car, "says the otherwise rather critical Professor Ferdinand Dudenhöffer of the University of Duisburg Essen." In my estimation, this is the first car, that deserves the name Tesla hunter. "At the same time it creates Porsche with the Taycan to position itself firmly in the future electric car field:" The Taycan has the makings of a classic, the 911 for the electric age, "says Dudenhöffer and sees it a slap in the face for the competition:" Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes AMG, Lotus have missed a chance. "

For the cast iron in the customer base, Porsche CEO Blume has a calming pill at the premiere by the way. For him, fully electric cars like the Taycan are not the new brand core, but, as he says, at most the "third pillar": sporty, fully networked, electric. But of course there will always be "space for burners in the company like in the 911".

This fits a small detail that shows that the Swabians can not quite shake off the old world - which sometimes leads to something absurd decisions. For example, in the nomenclature: As ever, the top models of the series are also called "turbo" and "turbo S" in the Taycan - although there is no longer a turbo charger in the engine compartment.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2019-09-04

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