Porsche's Bodacious Taycan Nabs 4-Door EV Nürburgring Lap Record With Sub 8-Min Run

by Brandon Hill — Monday, August 26, 2019, 10:11 AM EDT

There's no doubt that when it comes to production performance vehicles, Porsche has a long and storied history dating back to the original 356, which later evolved into the 911. The German automaker is looking to make a similar leap with the Taycan, as its releases its first fully electric vehicle (EV).

To show that the Taycan is capable of duking it out with premier gasoline-powered vehicles, Porsche has just released a video of the vehicle tearing its way around the famed Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit. Auto manufacturers often take their latest performance vehicle to the Nürburgring to see how fast they can complete a lap in the ultimate showcase of who has the biggest...well, you know…

In the case of the Taycan, it completed the 20.6-kilometer course in 7:42, which is a new record for a 4-door EV. For example, a Tesla Model 3 Performance can do the deed in around 9 minutes. To put the Taycan's lap time in perspective, here's a list of other "conventional" vehicles that also complete a lap in 7 minutes and 42 seconds:

Porsche Cayman GT4 (981)
Porsche 911 GT3 (997)
Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6)

What's impressive about the Taycan's performance is that the similarly sized Tesla Model S can complete a lap in about 10 minutes. The Taycan is rumored to have in excess of 600 horsepower, while the Tesla Model S has a claimed 762 horsepower. Despite the Model S's ability to rip sub-3-second 0-60 times in rapid succession, the vehicle has to throttle performance to keep the battery from cooking itself when running balls-out for long periods of time -- hence the extended Nürburgring lap times.

The Taycan might be Porsche's first production EV, but the company is clearly leaning on decades of experience in endurance racing to ensure that the its vehicle can extract as much power from its battery pack for extended period of time without imploding.

Porsche is set to officially unveil the Taycan at the Frankfurt Auto Show on September 4^th. The company has already given us a full look at the interior, and we have a general idea of what the final production vehicle will look like thanks to thinly disguised prototypes that have been making the rounds. The Taycan will be priced from $92,500 when it launches in the United States.

Tags: porsche, ev, porsche taycan, nürburgring

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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