All-electric Porsche Taycan debuts as the world's most powerful sedan
Porsche looking to take on Tesla with its all-electric Taycan making its debut as the world's most powerful sedan.
Elon Musk is putting his cars where his tweets are.
(MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)
In an apparent response to the debut of the new electric Porsche Taycan, the Tesla CEO tweeted on Thursday: "Model S on Nürburgring next week."
The Nürburgring Nordschleife is a winding, 13-mile-long racetrack in Germany that often is used by automakers as a testing facility and where lap times are the de facto benchmark for the world’s best sports cars.
PORSCHE TAYCAN DEBUTS AS THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL SEDAN
Porsche has been touting the overall performance of its first fully-electric car, which delivers up to 750 hp, and sets a track record for electric sedans at the Nürburgring of 7:42. That’s just 17 seconds shy of the overall four-door, four-seat mark held by the gas-powered Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe 63 S 4MATIC.
Tesla has never posted an official time at the track, and the fastest private attempt stands at 8:50, achieved with a now-discontinued Model S P85D in 2015. The following year at a Car and Driver event, the same model couldn’t complete a single lap of the 3.3-mile-long Virginia International Raceway without switching to reduced power mode to keep it from overheating.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
The Model S has received several updates since then, however, and Tesla claims the latest top of the line Performance version can accelerate to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and hit an electronically restricted top speed of 163 mph. Porsche’s figures for the record-setting Taycan Turbo S are 2.6 seconds and 161 mph, but the Nordschleife’s 73 curves require much more than straight-line speed.
(Tesla)
And, yes, Porsche calls it a Turbo. Something Musk and others have taken issue with. Porsche says it uses the word to denote high-performance trims and that it isn’t meant to be taken literally, since electric cars don’t use turbochargers.
FOLLOW FOX NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK AND VOTE!
This story has been updated to clarify the current Nurburgring record