Enduring power with speed: Porsche Taycan (video)

It seems that the Porsche Taycan can keep up full power even when accelerating several times in direct succession. In the video below, viewers can see what the first electric car made in the German town of Zuffenhausen can really do.

For the Youtube channel Fully Charged, electric car-enthusiast Jonny Smith experienced the Taycan’s power under pressure in a pre-series car: He took the sportscar on a sprint from zero to 200 km/h 26 times in a row. The Taycan achieved an average acceleration time of just under ten seconds with its two electric motors (manufacturer’s specification: over 440 kW). The constancy is quite remarkable: According to Porsche, the difference between the fastest and the slowest attempt was just 0.8 seconds.

Drawing on full power when accelerating several times or driving at top speed for longer periods is a challenge for the thermal management of an electric car. In the short term, the electric motors can be “overloaded” and thus call up their peak power. But these can become very hot in the process, as can the battery when so much power is called upon in such a short time. In a tricky mechanical balance, the battery should not be too hot or too cold for these kinds of driving manoeuvres. In other vehicles, the battery has to be cooled for some time after several accelerations before it can draw on maximum power again.

According to Porsche, it was very important in the development that the Taycan not only had one or two starts for show purposes but that it could sustain the performance. The Taycan should, therefore, be able to put up with several “hot laps” on a race track without any effort – but in the video, we see 26 acceleration manoeuvres to 200 km/h in quick succession.

Fun Fact: as our German colleague, Sebastian Schaal at electrive.net noticed, you can see from the small starting number 678 on the side window and the monochrome Union Jack on the roof of the Taycan in the published photo, that Smith drove the same pre-series car that former Formula 1 and Porsche works driver Mark Webber drove over the famous Hillclimb course at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

For lovers of quality and speed: the world premiere of the Taycan will take place on 4 September in parallel in China, Canada and Germany (Berlin) and can be followed via live stream.

porsche.com, cnet.com (video), porsche.com (live stream of world premiere)